How to Be a Parent Who Still Has Friends
Putting in the time doesn’t have to be impossible
Parents have all sorts of methods to connect these days. Sure, you can meet friends the old-fashioned ways — around the neighborhood or at your kid’s school — but now there are Meetup groups and neighborhood Listservs and parenting apps and Facebook groups all dedicated to bringing parents together. I’ve dabbled in Peanut, otherwise known as Tinder for mom friends, and I’m active in two incredible Facebook parenting groups. These are just some of the many tech platforms largely built to help parents find each other online and then connect in real life. But, of course, plenty of that connecting happens entirely behind a screen.
Researchers often blame the increase in loneliness on the proliferation of social media — instead of interacting with other warm bodies, people refresh their newsfeeds, so caught up in their on-screen life that they don’t realize they’re missing the real thing. But while virtual connection is not a replacement for real-life interaction, it may offer the next best thing, especially for the housebound parent. When we need to commiserate at a late-night hour, or we feel like friendships have started to slip in parenthood, an online group is at least something. Connecting with people who are going through a similar situation, even if only via social…
