The Outsiders

I've come to realize that I don't have a single "mommy" friend I can just grab an impromtu cup of coffee with. I come from a fairly long line of women who understand the importance of girlfriends. My own daughter is named for my grandmother's two best friends, who became the family we chose. My mom quickly bonded with her fellow cheer leading moms when I was a kid. The actually gave themselves a name and performed geriatric (compared to our 12 year old selves) versions of our routines. The Outrageous Eight were legendary. My aunts both have friendships they have cultivated since high school and college.
I, however, appear to be a bit of a lone wolf. It doesn't help that I have always been one to go my own way. I had my first baby at 21, when my contemporaries were finishing college, hooking up and could still be irresponsible on occasion.
Now they are having babies, but the chasm is already too deep. They are in the honeymoon phase of parenting. Their babies will never watch more than two hours of TV a week, eat McDonalds, and don't even have to worry about whether or not they will spank, because they are using 1-2-3 Magic and will never need to.
I one the other hand, am mired in the trenches of teen and tween-dom. Also known as Parenting Purgatory. Sure, they sleep through the night, but they want to stay up all night and sleep until noon. True, no more diapers, but that also means I am no longer in charge of their hygiene. Nothing smells worse than puberty. Of course they can "use their words" but they really aren't any more rational than toddlers, with the added bonus of being louder.
Most of the other moms of kids the age of my "big" kids are ten to fifteen years older than me, and in my community, about four socio-economic classes ahead of me. I went to the New Kids On The Block concerts; they dropped me off at the door. Their kids were planned, or conceived through fertility treatments, my first was conceived on the Pill.
It's not any easier with my younger kids. We are closer to contemporaries in age, but I am not a stay home mom, and not a mom with a real "career". So I am neither fish nor fowl there either.
I am blessed with a wonderful group of long distance friends and several non-parent friends. So I am not terribly lonely, or anti-social. It just would be nice to grab the occasional cup of coffee with someone other than my four year old.