Old fear: Being isolated with a small child and slipping into post-adoption depression.
Other women I know have mentioned feeling very isolated being at home with an infant or a toddler. My own mom shared with me tales of her struggles with feeling lonely and isolated when my sister and I were small. I think she worries about that for me.
This is something about which I worry a bit (and used to worry about A LOT), but thankfully am no longer letting stand in the way of becoming a parent.
For one thing, I finally realized that there are SO many more resources for parents today than there when my mom was taking care of me as a small child. There are more resources than there were even five or ten years ago. There are play groups and online support groups. My gym even has a lovely little sweetly decorated day care for infants and toddlers so that I can exercise without having to worry about getting a babysitter.
One of the things that I am starting to do for myself and for Chris is to research what's out there in terms of parental support. Over the next few months before Schmoopie's arrival, I'm going to make every effort to have in place those support systems (beyond friends and family) that will help us move forward successfully as parents. I believe that having support systems in place will be one of the key factors in our success and happiness as a family.
Last night was my first foray into doing some online research.
I must say I was just a little disheartened that it wasn't a very auspicious start.
Grrrr.
Locating some kind of domestic adoption support group in RI proved to be fruitless...All of my searches turned up "0 matches found."
Hmmmm.
But I'm not giving up just yet.
It was only 30 minutes of research done rather haphazardly and half-heartedly while Chris and I enjoyed the last 30 minutes of Eva-Marie Saint and Cary Grant duking it out and falling in love in "North By Northwest." There's certainly a lot more out there in the online world to explore and I am confident that eventually we'll find what we need.
This weekend I plan on doing more intensive and focused research minus the distractions of the television.
Wish me luck.
Are you still interested in that cool gym that offers childcare to the members? Seems like that's be awesome - working out, meeting other parents, etc. Other great places are: nature centers, little gyms and children's theaters/museums. xoG2
ReplyDeleteAs you probably know, I'm a big fan of Babycenter.com. I managed to find a fantastic group of women when I was pg with L and now 5 years later, the 25 or so of us are close friends. A quick search showed that Babycenter has quite a few threads going on adoption:
ReplyDeletehttp://community.babycenter.com/groups/a10245/adoptive_families
and about families in RI
http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a261615/rhode_island_families
and New England
http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a62375/new_england_parents
Then a quick search for a MOMs Club near you showed one in Portsmouth:
http://www.geocities.com/portsmouthmomsclub/
And Music Together which is great for meeting other families:
http://www.musictogethernewport.com/
Just a couple of ideas to get you started. Hope it helps!