MSN has an article about The Five Friends all Moms Need. Here’s the working moms’ spin:

1. The role model. I agree with this one. Every working mom needs a friend, 10 or more years ahead of the working mom game who has been there, done that. Ideally this is a colleague who can help balance career and family with advice and hopefully, a listening ear when working with small kids sends your life spinning out of control. Working mom mentors have helped me countless times over the years and now that my kids are older, this site is one way I’m trying to pay it forward.
2. The childless and probably even single friend. Who better to escape with, than the person who has no interest or understanding of what your life is like — grab a drink with her, go shopping, get pedis together and in the maybe four times a year you can afford to see her, slough off your working mom self and remember what it’s like to be silly and irresponsible. Remember that?
3. The peer. Hopefully there’s someone on your team or working in a similar field gunning for the same recognition and career goals you are, while trying to make it to the rehearsal or the soccer game in time to see their kids’ fabulous performances. This is the person you can rejoice in work successes with, comiserate failures, and share stories about your kids’ accomplishments — without irritating or boring the pants off your childless co-workers.
4. The mom of your kids’ friend(s). Nothing’s better than a mom whose kids are your kids’ friends, too. Even better if the parents are couple friends with you and your husband. Some of our best friend experiences have been where the whole group, kids and parents are pals.
5. The guy. A guy friend, especially a dad, is a welcome relief. They are non-competitive. None of the working mom vs. stay-at-home mom issues ever surface. The guy will remind you that you’re still a woman (they can’t help it, even in the most platonic relationships) even when you feel like an insomniac slob with baby spit up on your business suit.

How are you doing, collecting this critical group of friends?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 7:00 am and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.