Being an old parent feels isolating

[Anonymous]

I was lonely as a young mom (24) and I’m lonely now at a “normal” mom age (pregnant with #5 at 36). I think it’s just the kid stage. Don’t blame yourself for your age!

[Anonymous]

I had mine at 38 and would have loved to have a few older mom friends since most of mine were younger. Even now my closest friends are all 5-7 years younger than me. Don’t assume people don’t want to be friends because of age. Honestly they may not even know your age!

[Anonymous]

Like a PP mentioned, I think toddler stage is isolating and exhausting in general, doesn’t matter the age. What helped was taking DC to parenting or playgroups, play areas, and outside. Having survived it, it’s my most cherished time with my DC.

[Anonymous]

NP here - I hear you OP. I am an older single Mom, and it is very isolating, since most other women have kids earlier. And I do not have that much in common with younger women.

[Anonymous]

My recommendation for evenings out is to look for parents/kids night out events. These worked well for us as kid got to do something and we did too. My Gym, Lifetime Fitness, Silver Stars, etc.

[Anonymous]

I had my kids in my early 30s and felt the same way. It got a lot better as they got older and more self sufficient.

[Anonymous]

I’m 45 now but was 39 when I had my third child so I had a toddler in my forties. I look relatively young. I met many younger moms and still am friends with them. My youngest mom friend is 31. I also recently met a 57 year old mom whose youngest is the same age as my oldest. She was very nice and I hope to be friends with her.

There are playgroups, moms groups, moms clubs, etc if you want to meet other moms. This is actually an easy time to meet others. You will also meet others in preschool.

[Anonymous]

There are so many classes also like my gym, stroller strides, library time, etc. I’ve personally never met someone at these places but I have friends who have.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely try to be-friend other moms regardless of age. Motherhood friendships don't minimum or maximum age restrictions - the "shared" age should be based on your child's age not yours!

We had our kids on the younger side and most of our friends are older than us (some as much as 10-12 years older) but our kids are the same age thus we have many shared experiences.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Pp here. I was 30 when I had my first child and the first amongst my friends to have a kid. Then we moved to dc with a baby and toddler and no friends. I felt lonely too. Then I started going to moms group meetings. I clicked with a few new moms.

[Anonymous]

A decade ago, there was meetup and there were always playground meetups and playgroups. Now there seems to be a lot more facebook groups. There is no shortage of toddler moms.

[Anonymous]

I’m 36 with two little kids and can confirm it’s super isolating. I hang out with moms of similar aged kids — doesn’t matter if they’re older or younger than me, what matters is the nap schedules are similar. I’m looking forward to clawing me-time back someday.

[Anonymous]

I’m 41 with a baby and a toddler. We moved to a new area less than 3 years ago. I have more friends and have been busier socially than ever. But I made an effort to meet people, to host play dates, and to talk to parents at story time and activities. I’m also really an introvert but I sucked it up and talked to people.

[Anonymous]

I’m a younger mom, but I’d be happy to be friends with moms of any age. There is an app called peanut that is made for moms to meet other moms locally. Also MOPs groups: https://www.mops.org/groupsearch/ with in person and online mom groups