How a Stay-At-Home Mom Can Cope with Life in a New City

Being a stay-at-home mom is both a joy and a challenge. When a new mom decides to stay at home with her children, she has to learn to deal with being at home all day with children and not having access to much adult company, aside from the occasional delivery person who rings the bell. But, there are also times when there is an unforeseen job change, transfer or transition with the spouse that can cause the family to have to re-locate.

Now, the mom is faced with a new challenge: Life in a New City.

Following are some tried and proven suggestions to help the stay-at-home mom avoid boredom, loneliness and frustration and learn to cope with a new life in a new city:

1. Get out of the house as often as possible. With little ones at home, that may not always be feasible, but do get out. Plan your trips when you go out. Do more than the grocery store, post office, etc. Plan a trip to the local museum, or, even go antiquing. Just make sure the little ones are ready to nap first! Don't want anything breaking.

1. Join your kids school's PTO Board. This will keep you VERY busy and active and you certainly will not be bored. I joined the PTO Board as the newsletter chairman and it opened up so many doors. I got to further my business experience by writing the school's newsletter, make new friends, have lunch with my child on occasion, talk to my child's teacher as necessary and just be available. My only commitment with this was one day a month for PTO meetings and another day a month for newsletter copy and distribution.

2. Get the kids active in community sports. They will make new friends and you will also. Community-based sports are also good for giving you an idea of what's going on in the community, what direction the neighborhoods are headed, what the city's leadership is doing, etc., etc.

3. Go to any social functions in your neighborhood. Block parties, open houses and birthday parties are wonderful social networking events. This will help you meet and connect with neighbors all over.

4. Join a play group. This has always been a favorite among newcomers to any city. It gives you a chance in a non-threatening environment to see how your children play with others, assess character skills, observe morals and values and them decide if you in fact want to be friends with or even acquainted with someone.

5. Know you're not alone. People are transitioning daily, so don't think you're the first to go to a new city and learn how to cope. Talk to others in your (new) circles and you'll be surprised to find out just how many "new faces" there are in the crowd.

Good luck!