This morning, at my MOPS group, our speakers were a local couple, and they talked about intimacy in marriage. I know that when many people think of intimacy, they think of sex. However, this couple talked about intimacy outside of sex. They talked about being open, honest, and vulnerable with each other. They talked about spending time together as friends and just being. It was great to see a couple married 31+ years discuss these issues. They also discussed their earliest memories of intimacy as being with their parents (her with her mom, and him with his dad).

The more I thought about intimacy in relationships, the more I thought about nursing and breastfeeding. It’s a very private, intimate, and open relationship that a child and a mom have while nursing. Looking at my relationships with both K and A, I can say that I really see a closeness in my relationship with K that I don’t have yet with A. Having spent at least a couple hours a day nursing him almost every day for the past 2 years has definitely developed that relationship. I also see an intimacy in my relationship with A that I didn’t have with K. Because A has been such a high-needs baby, I have so much time with him. It’s also been pretty intense time over the past seven months.

After hearing the couple speak today, I began to think about my boys’ future relationships, and I hope that in some way, having this relationship with me will be the beginning of a lifetime of experiences that allow them to experience intimacy (in many ways) with those in their futures.