Moms Need Playgroups Too!

Once upon a time, I was a woman on the go, organized, professional, and very involved in my life, that is my "work life". I was a school teacher at a local elementary school. Before that I was in school full time and working as a nanny. Before that, I was going to school part time and working as a child care director. Before that I was a child care teacher. Oh, and before that, I was a teen in school babysitting.

Do you see a pattern? I have worked with children all my adult life! I started at just 16 years old. Working with children is all I have ever known. I love children, need I say more? As you can see from my list of job experiences, I have also kept very busy. I love busy! I have to admit that I used to be a bit of a perfectionist, your typical "Type A" personality. Everything had to be "just right" and I liked things to always be done to my best ability. As a school teacher I gave 110%! I expected to be a teacher all my life, but that changed when I found out I was expecting our first child while teaching my first year.

While pregnant, future desires and goals changed. I couldn't imagine going back to work after having our child. My husband and I agreed to me staying home once our little boy came along. I thought to myself, 'this will be easy since I am used to working with children.' Well, I was wrong. My world was turned upside down. Being a mom is NOT the same as working with someone else's children.

The world instantly revolved around that new little life, our new baby boy, Thomas. Slowly, my existence as Kristina, wife to Jim and school teacher, disappeared. Soon, I didn't know who I really was anymore. I felt like I was losing all my friends because they didn't have children yet. My life pretty much involved nursing Thomas, changing Thomas, and sleeping (a valuable commodity when you are a new mom).