Just Another One of Those Times I Can Count On My Girlfriends

So this is the third year in a row that my husband wasn’t around to celebrate Mother’s Day with me and our girls. It’s the same reason every year. He basically has to travel around the world for various meetings and such for work and May is the time he has to do that.

No, I don’t feel sad or resentful. He does what he has to do and Mother’s Day, well, it is a single day (he’s actually traveling for a couple weeks). However, it’s an important day to me. It’s a day to celebrate all mothers and since I’m one and I believe my own mother is rather extraordinary, I think Mother’s Day deserves its recognition. Thus like any other special day, I really feel the need to do something different than any other Sunday on any other weekend.

Given that most of my mommy friends spend the day with their respective families, I call up one of my girlfriends (yes, she’s single) to see what she’s up to. Aunt L also happens to be my girls’ godmother. And as last year, she arranged to have lunch/brunch at Café Sparrow in Aptos with us, another mommy friend of ours and her son. Because this is the second year in a row that we’ve done this, I think it’s become a new tradition. Heh heh  Afterwards, my girls and I spent the rest of the sunny, relaxing afternoon at the beach with Aunt L.

Now, you hear about it all the time – the girlfriends you lose touch with because they’re dating someone or are married. Single girlfriends that are at a different phase in their lives that you don’t feel like you relate to any longer. Schedules differ. Priorities change. Your life revolves around your children’s needs, hers revolves around work and a new hot spot for drinks and dinner. Not so with Aunt L. Oh don’t get me wrong. She certainly works too much and loves to check out the latest and greatest in hot spots and such but we’ve maintained a very close friendship. And as a mommy with two 4-year-olds, close girlfriends (single and married) are just as (if not more) important to have.

Though my husband and I have a solid relationship, it’s that girl thing. And I’m not talking about the mommy-to-mommy thing. It’s about the girlfriends that understood you before you became a mommy, who you connected with before a husband and children became your priorities, who not only love your children but help remind you that you’re a girlfriend, too, whose shoulder is always there to cry on, who needs to hit the spa or have a cup of coffee where the conversation revolves around well, girl things. Sometimes, you touch on your children, sometimes, you talk about her latest date, sometimes you talk about families, goals, careers, dreams, whatever. And this is who I called to spend time with on Mother’s Day. And all of us girls had a fabulous time. The lesson for my 4-year-old girls? Never let go of your girlfriends. You’ll need them (and they’ll need you), even when you’ve found your soul mate and have the most wonderful children you could imagine.

Original Silicon Valley Moms Blog post.

When not having a cup of coffee with her girlfriends, MommyTwinGirls can be found at It's Never Easy But It's Always Fun and Near and Far....