"When my husband and I moved to Portland, we knew—theoretically—that we were on our own. We were on our own in New York City, too, where we had moved from. But we were childless there. And also, well, we lived in New York City, where being near parents didn’t seem like quite so much of a bonus. (“Yes, Dad, it’s okay to walk home by myself at 9 pm.”)
The true meaning of “it takes a village” hit us after the birth of our first son. We had lived in Portland for just over a year at that point, and had made some friends. Mostly from our parenting group at our hospital, or from my work. (My husband worked from home, so no luck building our social scene there.) But, shockingly, the parents in our parenting group were also dealing with newborns for the first time and didn’t need any added burden from us—though they were invaluable on the commiseration front. And I didn’t feel like my boss was the right person to go to when we needed a break from diapers."
