becoming a mother when most of your friends have just started their college careers or full-time jobs or world travels tends to mean playdates are few and far between (unless you’re one of those strangely sociable folk who are brave enough to strike up conversation with perfect strangers and create new friendships out of thin air).
but if you’re a mother who uses instagram, regardless of how old (or how young) you were when you birthed your first babe, chances are, you’ve made some insta friendships. it’s easy to do. sure, some (okay, a lot) of the mama / child content out there is a bit too curated (hey, i’m not pointing fingers — i’ve been plenty guilty of it myself). but if you find the right people, many of the captions they write are raw and honest. the gritty details of tiny human-raising not withheld. the clutter, the back-talk, the sleep deprivation. the bodily excrement in places it doesn’t belong. the frustration we feel having to repeat the same damn things day in and day out. the weight we all carry on our shoulders worrying just how screwed our children will one day be because the ways we have failed them.
amanda is one i’ve always felt was able to master sharing the good, the bad, and everything in between. and lucky for me and liam, she and her trio of tiny humans live not twenty minutes away. spoiler: unsurprisingly, she is every bit as honest and as lovely in person as she is online.
and to you, blog — remind me to send a thank you card to the creators of instagram, would ya? because without it, amanda and i (and liam and stella, theo, and alfie) likely never would have started a friendship — or had this fun-filled, phone-soaked, afternoon playdate.
little joys 