The Essential Guide To Making Friends With Other Mums

I’m sure many of you will agree that peer pressure and the need to ‘fit in’ will never have been as desperate as when you are a new Mum.

You’ve basically been thrown head first into the toughest gig of your life with no prior education or training and the possibility of stuffing it up feels very real, if not certain, at times. Naturally, our best way to cope with such a life changing challenge is to find people in a similar situation who we can share our fears and joys with, in the hope of comforting and learning from each other, as well as hopefully gaining a sense of comradery along the way.

But what if you don’t know anyone who has recently had a baby? Or has kids the same age as yours? Or if you’ve recently moved and know nobody? We take a look at some ways to make friends with other mums.

Unusual Settings.

You don’t have to be at a formal ‘Mums & Bubs’ event like a Mother’s Group to make friends, potential Mummy friends can be found all around you. The challenge comes with having the courage to make the approach…

Have you noticed when we are surrounded by people we don’t know, we all tend to solely focus on the kids and barely make eye contact let alone speak to the other adults present? It’s particularly amusing when you come to the realisation that the kids don’t have half the social inhibitions that adults’ do – they’re getting right in there and making friends at every opportunity!

The park is a great place to meet other Mum friends, no-one is rushing off anywhere and you have your kids as an obvious conversation starter. Trust me when I say that it won’t take long to know if you’re chatting to a future Mummy friend or not by their demeanour and their willingness to chat. If it goes really well, you can let them know you when you usually go to the park and that hopefully you’ll run into them again.

Walking the streets with your baby or toddler in the pram is another excellent way to find out what Mum’s live around your area and might also be looking for another mummy friend. If you start crossing paths with another Mum regularly, make the effort to say hello and see what response you get. After a few weeks you may find that you end up stopping for a chat in the street every time you run into each other. Things will naturally go from there to catching up in other settings.

Make an Effort.

A lot of local councils organise events to bring Mum and their babies/toddlers together. Activities like Mums with Prams can be a fantastic way to make new Mum friends while giving your child a fun outing and getting some exercise at the same time!

Another way to make Mummy friends is to make an effort to get to know Mum’s that you might see regularly but never really have a chance to chat. For example, at your child’s swimming lesson you may not be able to chat properly to the other Mum’s despite attending the same classes for months as you’ve all got your hands full helping junior to develop some water skills! Why not suggest at the end of one of the swimming lessons that you should all catch up for coffee as a group on another day and see how many takers you get? Don’t be afraid to be the first one to take the social leap and a risk while trying to make new Mummy friends. After all, you’ve got nothing to lose!

More often than not, you’ll probably discover that the other Mums accept your social invitation with enthusiasm as they had been trying to build up the courage to take your acquaintance with them to the next level as well!

How did you make your Mummy friends?