Co-opping

Pretty sure that's not a word but it's alive and well in our home and in our neighborhood. It's the term I've claimed to describe the amazing friendship and lil' community that has formed in just six short months between our family and two other families in our neighborhood. Meet Natalia and Tara (and me, with the weird half-smile ;/).

Women with successful careers of production manager, teacher, and psychologist~ temporarily put on hold to stay-at-home and raise these lil munchkins....

"Why are you stopping us from play at our Christmas party?!"

I met Natalia and Tara (and their precious girls Sasha and Marilyn) at our neighborhood playground shortly after moving to DC last summer. After realizing we lived very near one another, we formed a fast friendship. That sort of happens here when you meet other stay-at-home moms in this city. We are few and far between because of the Nanny culture here so we (the mamas) tend to stick together. Anyways, we began setting up playdates and meeting each other at local activities during the week (story time, yoga class, etc.). Our children quickly became friends and we can hardly go anywhere now without Judah asking if Sasha and "Mar-Mar" will be there. They squeal with excitement when they see each other and there are plenty of hugs and kisses to go around when we say our good-byes. The three musketeers. 3 amigos. The triple-threat :-) Best friends. It has really been the sweetest thing seeing the three of them bond.

Two topics of conversation that seemed to frequently arise among the mamas were how we longed for "breaks"~both refreshing breaks (i.e., date nights with our hubbies) as well as working breaks, if  you will....time to clean, grocery shop, plan for the week, and simply finishing a project that's been on a to-do list for months. A second theme surrounding this idea was how expensive it is to live in the city~including the cost of child care. So.....under the leadership of Tara, we all put our heads together to come up with a plan to make the "breaks" happen... for FREE :-) I'm happy to report that several months later, we have a successful little "co-op" under way. Three Saturday nights every month, one of us "sits" for the other while we get that much needed time with our husband out of the house. It's pretty fantastic because 2 Saturday nights out of the month, I'm either reading my Kindle on my friend's couch while their child quietly sleeps or I'm out on the town with my hubby.This was so successful that we decided to try something similar during the daytime on weekdays. So three afternoons per week, we have a similar rotation. Two moms watch all three kiddos while one mom gets the afternoon to do as she pleases. Again, it's fantastic because three afternoons during the week you'll either find me hanging out with a friend playing with three adorable toddlers or knocking things off my to-do list while my own toddler is in good care :-)

I am so incredibly grateful for this resource, this time, but most importantly~these friendships. Truly a blessing. I share this with you in case our story can inspire other hard-working stay-at-home mamas who may be reading to engage in the same type of "co-operative." I promise, it will not disappoint.