College Park Patch: Advice for a New Mom

One of my dear friends just had a baby, her fourth. She’s an experienced mom who has gone through the trials of motherhood. She knows the sleepless nights, has mastered nursing in public, and she already knows how to use one hand to feed herself while nursing her baby and correcting an older child’s homework at the same time. None of this is new for her. In a way though, it is. This time the bundle of love lying in her arms is a boy!

As an (ahem) experienced mom to two boys, I have this urge to fill her with advice. I had to stifle myself when I was at her house for a visit to meet the new little one. I wanted to shower her with my words of wisdom, an avalanche on her tired brain.

I grew up in a family of girls; I’m the youngest of five. When I gave birth to a boy, I had no idea what to do with one. I knew how to play Barbies and dress up; not just from my own upbringing but all of my sisters had daughters of their own.

My friend is a phenomenal mother, I watch her with her children and I’m amazed by her patience. But this new gender in her family dynamic is going to shift the way she has always parented. And it’s going to make her notice things in our society about gender, what is expected of her son but not of her daughters. Expectations of his behavior and family traditions that weren’t addressed before he was born will suddenly become important to certain family members.
What would my advice be?
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