Moms and Daughters.

I've been keeping a secret from you.
Mostly because it's delicious and I've enjoyed just having it quietly to myself.
If you knew me personally - you would know that this is not in keeping with my character.

Six months ago I was invited to join in The Mother Daughter Project.
It has been one of the best experiences of my parenting life.

We are six women and six girls. We only have our older girls in this group.
We meet as moms and with the girls.
We aim to form a bond that will give us support for years to come and especially for the teenage years.. We hope our girls will come to see the other moms as surrogates and the other girls as sisters. We are creating the village we do not have because we all live away from our families.

It has been exciting, nourishing and even transformative.

And then we went camping.

We brought 'the littles' because the dads had to work, so we had six moms and eleven children ranging from 8 months to 7.5 years.

We envisioned campfire stories, s'mores, songs and walks in the wood.
We got that. It was lovely.

We also got this:

Mom, I'm hungry.
Mom, I need to pee.
Mom, I need some water.
MOM - Waaaaagh, I fell.
Mom, I need a band aid.
Mom where's my sweater?
Mom where's my pencil - not that one - the purple one?
Mom where's my cup?
Mom when are we going to the river?
Mom, when are we having s'mores?
Mom, I need to pee again.
Mom, is dinner ready yet?
Mom, is this poison oak?
Mom, are there bears here?
Mom, I'm still hungry?
Mom, is it time for the s'mores now?
times eleven.


I've always known we moms are an incredible crew but this was something else.
We set up six campsites, cooked meals for 17 and provided entertainment.
Phew.

In addition a pack of raccoons decided to taunt us. They raided our food supplies each night despite our careful efforts to secure our supplies. The hissed at us, tried to burrow under tents and were generally menacing.
We prevailed but it was extra challenge we did not need.

I am now in my easy, comfortable home. Laundry done.
I think our next Mother Daughter adventure should be spa based.


Want to start your own group?
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