National Health ante natal classes and shopping in New York

Kathy Lawrence, a business copywriter by day, has been inspired to write her first and possibly only mum blog by a surprising anniversary. 

It’s our silver anniversary this month. Nah, not wedding. It’s 25 years since my first ante-natal class, and never would I have imagined then that those women would still be my best friends now.

We were a small group meeting up in the local youth centre. Some scary ones, who’d already done the NCT classes, were committed to breastfeeding, and even knew the proper name for swollen ankles. There was me, only six months into my pregnancy, already working from home, and still pretending nothing was going to change in my life. And all shades inbetween.

But once we’d all produced, we began to get together on Tuesday afternoons for tea and reassurance. Some dropped out, we co-opted one in, but the core remained, comparing, but not necessarily contrasting, our children’s progress through life.

As the children grew we took to farms and amusement parks and days at the seaside. We settled into traditions involving the whole family that could have been scenes from Thirtysomething. Bonfire Night, Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve followed by hangover brunch, and the August sleepover in a very large tent.

In time we left the children at home, and took to the pubs. Over the years, we’ve seen each other through more births, getting back to work, relationship traumas, bereavements, redundancies, offspring traumas – and the very tough task of dealing with ageing and ailing parents. Never divorce though. Perhaps because we’ve always been there for each other to let off steam – listening, empathising, and never reminding each other later of what they said that night.

We insisted on bringing the children back together once more – in the summer of their 18^th birthdays. Sceptical at first, they all enjoyed an hilarious jelly and icecream afternoon party with only two garden seats and one knee permanently damaged in the interests of a hard-fought musical chairs.

Today we are still a group of five – although one has to call in from several hundred miles away. The Christmas meal out has become a weekend combining the Harrods Christmas shop, carols at St Martin’s in the Fields, and cocktails anywhere we can find them.

We’re going to stick together till death and all that. We have plans. Christmas shopping in New York. That sort of stuff. So here’s to the National Health ante-natal classes (do they still exist?) and the power of friendship.

No mum blog, but Kathy does publish her own occasional business writing blogs at www.wrightwell.co.uk/blog and http://wrightwell.blogspot.co.uk/. She’s even more lax about contributing to her folk art painting blog at http://artforapurpose.blogspot.co.uk/