From the moment our daughter was born I learned quickly that it really does “take a village” to raise a child. It doesn’t mean that you are parenting any less, but it just means that you need to be able to reach out and accept help when needed. Finding your village can be hard, but I know that our village for our children are their grandparents.
When we moved 2 years ago, we moved very far away from my parents. They were our babysitters, took our daughter to appointments if we couldn’t, took her places with them, played on the floor with her, and essentially looked after her as if she were their own. We quickly learned that our daughter thrived off of having the closeness of her grandparents. Frankly, we thrived and survived off of that, too. 
When we found out we were pregnant with our second I was stressing from the very beginning about who was going to help us with our daughter and myself post c-section. Looking back I stressed for no reason because the moment the words came out of my mouth to the grandparents, they were all hands-on deck with whatever our needs were. Plans were made of when everyone is coming, how long, what they can help with, and instantly my stress went away. I’m reminded in these moments that our children will have something that not every child gets to experience. Not only grandparents that are still living, but some that are so involved. I’m forever thankful that they are loved and cherished this way.
Not everyone’s village consist of grandparents or maybe not even family members. We have met friends since moving and I know I can reach out to them when needed as well. There’s just a different level of comfort when it comes to grandparents. Not only do you need that village for your children’s growth, but your sanity needs it as well. There are moments when you need that veteran parent who knows how to calm your crying newborn. They hold the secrets that the plethora of parenting books and Google searches don’t hold; trust me my dad use to be able to sway our daughter to sleep like a champ and I still can’t figure out how or what he did.
There’s a major sense of relief I’m anticipating as my mom prepares to come stay with us and help with daughter while we welcome her sister into the world. There’s no list, suggestions, agendas, etc. She’s here to love on and keep our busy girl going while we focus on delivery and recovery. As we prepared to welcome our second, I knew that our daughter was going to be in the best of hands and I had no reason to stress. As her “Nene” says “Don’t leave me any list or directions, just let me handle it.” That’s music to my ears.
