Motherhood has built me and broken me at the same time

I’m a stay-at-home mom to two toddlers and most days I feel kind of trapped — not because I don’t love my kids, but because I genuinely miss having real friendships and adult conversations.

This past fall it really hit me how isolated I’ve become. Motherhood has changed me so much that sometimes I don’t even feel like a whole person anymore.

The hard part is I don’t really know how to meet people in this season of life. No job outside the home, most interactions are small talk, and it’s hard to build anything real from that. I’m someone who craves genuine connection — I’d rather have one honest conversation than a hundred surface-level ones. Faking it is exhausting and it gets you nowhere.

I just miss having people. A real friend group. Feeling known.

Anyone else been here? How did you get out of it?