What do you think? Do you like the new digs? {If you’re reading this in your email or feed, you might want to click on over to check it out!} I hope you find this space fresh, fun, and easier to locate exactly what you’re looking for when you visit Home with the Boys! Thanks for being a part of our little home here! Now, on with today’s post…
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The boys and I took a little field trip to check out five newborn lion cubs at our local zoo.
Oh boy, we they ever cute! They were sleeping the whole time, two snuggled together in a corner, and three more piled on top of each other snoozing away.
At less than a few weeks postpartum, the mama lion was also resting in the same enclosure as her cubs alongside a fellow female lion. We stepped over to the zookeeper to ask which one was the mother, and at that moment I overheard an interesting conversation.
The zookeeper informed those of us listening that the two female lions were sisters. In the world of lions, the female of the species are very social and do most things together. In the wild, they are able to time the births of their cubs within their pride so they can take care of and even nurse one another’s little ones.
These female lions are the perfect picture of what a community of mothers – yes, us human mothers – can look like. Well, except for the whole “nursing each other’s children” part…
Find your “pride.”
This might be family members if you live near one another, but for many of us, our family is far away so we need to find our own local “pride” of mama friends. For me, it’s my Bible study girls. It might be a MOPS group or a few other moms in your neighborhood. There are advantages to a “pride” of mixed ages, where older mamas can help mentor younger ones, but having children of similar ages can bring about great camaraderie as well!
Don’t leave a new mama all alone.
I don’t care how many babies a woman has had, she always deserves some post-partum help. For the mama lion, she had her sister helping care for the cubs. A meal, a nap, an adult conversation – anything you can provide for that new mama in your life will be a breath of fresh air for her! And don’t forget about her a few months down the road when she is worn down from many sleepless nights and most people have stopped providing help. The mother of a three-month old will appreciate a meal just as much as the mother or a newborn! If you ARE a new mama, let others come alongside you!
Do life together.
Female lions raise children together, hunt together, do life together. Doing everyday things with other mamas makes me feel like my life is normal. I feel united with them when we play date or field trip or cook or eat together. Feeling normal and united is a good thing for every mama. Even just talking about the ups and downs of your day with another mom will be uplifting when you are able to laugh together and spur one another on!
It’s amazing what you can learn about the importance of community for moms from a day at the zoo!
I love this! It’s so true that no matter how many babies someone has, they need that pride, that community. I think more so is this true as my friends have more babies and are worn down.
I have a great pride of Kim, Rachel, Mary, Kara, Jessie, Elly, Kait, and more I can’t remember to name.
Yes, Randi! I think non-first time moms sometimes get looked over because they’ve done it all before! It’s totally a myth that we don’t need as much help the second, third, fourth time around! Love hearing that you have a great “pride!”
I love those lion facts. It’s always so neat to see how God created. I also love how you connected it to us as mamas. A few years ago we had a nice neighborhood pride but due to moves and what not that has dissolved a bit. I’m hoping to help build up a new pride soon. So true about meals and help for older babies too. For that matter I wouldn’t mind if someone showed up on my doorstep with a meal either! 🙂
I love your new digs! Beautiful!
Yes! Meals for toddler mamas, meals for mamas of young children, meals for mothers of teenagers – we would all be blessed by it, wouldn’t we?!
Thanks Sara! Love having you around here!
Such a sweet post, Erin. Love the new digs… looks fantastic! And what a fun field trip! 🙂
Thanks friend! Let me know if you are ever down this way – you can join us for a field trip!
The commentluv tool kept coming up as ‘internal server error’… is that on my end? It did work for your other comments above.
Well, that’s weird! I’m not sure Jennifer! Let me see if it does that for anyone else! Sorry about that!
Not a problem… just curious if there was something I could do to help it work. 🙂 Just to let you know, which you could have set up that way intentionally, I tried to reply to your reply via email and I couldn’t.
First off, I love your new look! It is beautiful! Secondly, I agree so much! As moms, we need to be there for one another! After just moving, I am trying to find that group of ladies that I can help and be there for. I know God will send the perfect group to me! Speaking of lions, I love this book by Jim Arnosky. It was the very first book my youngest son read to me. http://www.amazon.com/Little-Lions-Jim-Arnosky/dp/0399229442
Thank you Joy! And I’ll be praying you find your new group there quickly! Thanks for sharing the book as well!
LOVE the new look! This was a great post and a wonderful reminder to lean on each other and to be there to help each other out. I live in the midwest and I find all too often that people (myself included) don’t want to except help because they don’t want to inconvenience others.
Thank you Stacy! Yes, we Midwesterners are “boot-strap” people aren’t we?! It doesn’t make us weak to accept help!
Love it! What a calm, welcoming feel you have going on…nice work, Momma!
Oh Angeline, I’m so glad it makes you feel that way! In this house of boys, I needed some calm!
LOVE the new look! Have to admit, I missed the blue at first! This post hits me right between the eyes! I feel okay at supporting others, but allowing others come alongside me is hard!
Thanks friend! I debated about keeping the blue, but green is my favorite color, so I had to go with that!
Beautiful, as are you!
Thank you my sweet friend!
THe new look is lovely! Congrats on it! So fun to slip into new skin, isn’t it? 🙂
Thank you dear! So fun! And even more fun when I did it all myself! {With a lot of reading Amy Lynn Andrews’ blog!}
Love the new “do”. Great post!
Thank you so much Meghan!
LOVING the spruce up and this post! xo
Thanks sweet friend! It was fun to play around with the design!
Just catching up on some blog reading! I really like the new blog look! Good job! One of these days I will figure it out for mine.
Looks like we need to check out those new babies before they aren’t babies anymore….so sweet!
As for a pride group…I really don’t have one anymore. I am hopeful and praying that we will get connected some where….just don’t know where. I still have my Sunday church friends, but since we live an hour away we are out of the loop for everything….even though I keep trying to stay connected.
Thanks Julie! It was fun once I figured out what I was doing!
You MUST go see the cubs! They are adorable!
And I’ll be praying for just the right people to come alongside you!