I’m not quite sure why as more years pile up behind me that I become so much more nostalgic, but I am. Seems it happens to us all. Maybe it’s because the future seems oh I don’t know shaky, scary, too uncertain. So anyway, nostalgic I’m going to wax.
Has anyone else ever noticed that once we are grown the life we had as we were being raised just ceases to exist. For example, I was raised watching I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best even the Brady Bunch. I thought and even had high hopes that when I was grown I would be a stay at home mom as would all my female friends. We would get together, have tea, exchange recipes, go shopping, play cards, attend PTA meetings all the while raising well adjusted children.
I also remember many times being at my grandmothers house and in the mornings the neighbor ladies from her little town of Willow Oklahoma would come gather at her house. She would have the coffee pot going and they would all sit around the table drinking coffee and having a nice visit. I loved being there among all that female energy. It wasn’t a gossip session, although yea maybe there was a tiny bit, but more than that it was a way of sharing their small town life. Sharing their concerns for others in the community. Sharing some laughs and occasional tears. Just being there for each other. They weren’t hurried or stressed about getting to work, they planned their days around the needs of their family. It seemed like a pretty good plan to me.
I believed those things were going to be a part of my grown up life as well, but sadly they weren’t.
I was fortunate enough to stay home with my babies for many years. I cherished being a stay at home mom. I felt it was important to be home with my kids. Financially though it wasn’t always possible. When I was home, I had maybe one other stay at home mom friend. It did get lonely, there was no Ethel to drop in all the time. I needed that female companionship. There were times I needed to commiserate with another mom to help manage the days when being a stay at home mom got to be too much. Then there were other times I just wanted to share the joy of being a stay at home mom.
But most women couldn’t afford to be home with their kids or simply preferred their own careers. So my little ones didn’t have play dates and I didn’t get to enjoy the fun and support of having other stay at home moms around. I felt cheated. This wasn’t how it was suppose to be.
This wasn’t what my growing up years prepared me for. It turned into a different world, a sadder world, a less connected world- in my opinion.
That's what I thought 