Generations / ages and stages

 

I have been thinking about my friends, mainly women I have become friends with through La Leche League.

I became a LLL Leader in 1979 and had a co-Leader in Maryland.  Then we moved to Poland.  I was not able to be an active Leader there.  But we used to go to Berlin (West Berlin back then)  and I met with a couple of LLL Leaders there.  One was a US Army spouse and the other was a permanent resident of Germany-and an opera singer.

Anyway, I was going to write a long dissertation on all of my LLL co-Leaders.  But that's not the point I am getting to.

When I started in LLL I had one child, Courtney, who was a baby.   With each baby I got more involved and met more moms and LLL Leaders.   Here in the US and overseas.

For more than 20 years now I have been in an online group of "older" LLL Leaders.  Of course we were not so old when we started out.  But we were not in the diaper/ potty training stages.

And I find myself thinking and wondering which of my LLL friends know which others.   My LLL friends from earlier on knew me when I was nursing babies and when I was pregnant.  Others know me as a mother of young kids and toddlers.  And now, I am as old or older than the mothers of my LLL friends.

It is an evolution of sorts.  Being a nursing mom sharing and teaching other young, new, nursing moms.  A mom of school age kids who are still in the home and young enough for the moms of babies and toddlers to relate to.   

Becoming an international board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC).  Credentialed.  A professional.

Then college aged kids, married kids, adult kids.  In my 60s.  Almost 70.  I am no longer "one of the moms".  I don't go to play groups.   I am more of a teacher and mentor.    

But through it all, breastfeeding and parenting and supporting and teaching are a big part of who I am and what I care about.

I am retiring from the lactation consulting.  My credential  expires in June 2023 and I am not re-certifying.   I have not actually worked as a professional very much in the last 8 years or so- ever since my brain surgery in 2014.  I feel like I should be sad.  But I am not really.

I still plan to help educate and support moms and babies as a La Leche League Leaders.   It's who I am.