The Babies of Well-Read Mom
Written by Caitlin Bootsma
There was another young participant at our recent Well-Read Mom meeting–significantly younger than the rest of us. Nestled in with his mom on a leather couch, he was a pretty silent witness to our conversation. Yet, he, like many babies before him, played an important role in our gathering.
This is our chapter’s 7th year and we have hosted a significant number of babies over the years. Many times, Well-Read Babies have joined the group from the womb. Their moms drink tea and humbly accept the most comfortable chair in the room as the baby’s arrival draws near.
We’ve had many, many newborns, as we did at a recent gathering. Young babies are difficult to leave behind and—as many of us have discovered after multiple children—much easier to bring along than toddlers! The babies receive a lot of attention as everyone arrives, content to receive glimpses from moms throughout the discussion, and often are conked out before we tired moms head out after a late night of good books and even better company.
The babies are part of what makes Well-Read Mom. They are, after all, who make us mothers. Their presence not only reminds us of our own babies, but perhaps makes more immediate our reflections on the great questions in our literature selections—Who were we created to be? How have the characters grown and changed? How have we?
After all, while the babies are part of our stories, they too will have stories that are just beginning.
And while mostly babies are causes of shared joy, our group has also prayed and suffered alongside moms as they have lost little ones. Babies lost to miscarriage have come up in our conversations, an experience that many of us share. Sometimes a member will quietly take some time apart from the group as she mourns a recent loss. Sometimes, women have turned to the others in the group—with whom they’ve discussed suffering in great depth in our discussions—to keep them in prayer.
The babies who were with us in those early days of our chapter are not that little any more. When we started our chapter, I had a bald 8-month-old. Today, my first grader has a head full of red curls and she has taken to carrying a stack of chapter books around with her. She tells everyone that her mom is really proud that she is a reader. And I am!
These babies, and the bigger children they become, remind us that we too have grown and changed over these years together. We’ve celebrated births, mourned deaths, and worked through life’s rough patches with the help of literature and the friendships we’ve formed.
I couldn’t begin to count how many babies have come to the meetings over the years. But, as we inquired at our latest meetup whether our latest baby participant is now sleeping through the night (and thus has ‘graduated’ from our meetings), it is quite probable that babies will continue to be part of Well-Read Mom for many meetings to come.
About Caitlin Bootsma
Caitlin is an author, an editor, and a mother of 5 who lives in Richmond, Virginia. Her love of reading has led to a love of writing. You can find her children’s books – How Edith Found Jesus and the Detective Thomas series at orderosv.com.
About Well-Read Mom
In Well-Read Mom, women read more and read well. Our hope is to deepen the awareness of meaning hidden in each woman’s daily life, elevate the cultural conversation, and revitalize reading literature from books. If you would like to have us help you select worthy reading material, we invite you to join and read along with us. We are better together! For information on how to start or join a Well-Read Mom group visit our website wellreadmom.com
