Not Alone

A few weeks back,  I was watching my daughter's gymnastics class when I started a conversation with the mother sitting next to me. We chit chated about the summer and I mentioned that I'd been in France with the kids for the last month. A few minutes later the mother whispers...
"do you have a blog about moving to the suburbs?"
 "Yes I do!"
 "Well I read your blog and it really speaks to me."
 I couldn't believe I was meeting one of my readers!

Anyway we continue to chat and it turns out that she and her family moved from the city pretty much at the same time as we did and she too had found the experience to be challenging! We had such a great conversation about what we missed about the city but also about the nice things we'd found living out here. It was so comforting to know that I wasn't the only going through this experience.

It made me realize that there are so many of us who move from the city to the burbs and a good number of us are not wearing poms poms. It's a challenge and we don't quite buy into the whole notion that life is soooo much better out here. Our mistake is keeping our feelings to ourselves because it leaves us feeling pretty isolated that first year. What I've found is people talk about their hardship after they've made it through the first year!

I would love to find a way to reach out to city girls who are just moving the burbs and invite them to speak more frankly about their experiences because I'm sure they'd find like me, other mothers who feel the same. It really helps to know your not alone.

By the way it was so interesting to me that this mom and I were both honest about our feelings but also quite vocal about the pros of living out here. It wasn't the moaning session you'd expect from two city girls. It was more of a "hey I've made it through the first hard year of transitioning to the burbs and so did you! And by they way now I've met a nice person I might never have met in the city!