Do you remember Hillary Clinton’s book, It Takes a Village? Personally, I haven’t read it yet, but have always meant to. Unexpectedly today, however, I experienced the living, breathing reality of what this parenting concept truly embodies, and what it means to be part of a community.

Our across-the-street neighbors rank as family among our friends. My husband is godfather to one of their children, the mom – my girlfriend – hosted my baby shower, and our households share a part-time nanny. The Super Bowl street party is always at their house, and the Halloween haunt is always at ours. We both moved into our sweet little homes during the spring of 2002, and our first wee ones were all born one lovely summer together, just months apart.

So when their grandmother knocked on my door this morning, toting a two-year old in one hand, a plastic bag with a cell phone & charger in the other, and quivering on the verge of tears, I dropped everything and grabbed the car keys.

The baby had been admitted to the hospital an hour before, and my girlfriend needed her work phone; amid the freaked-out panic of the morning, trying to manage a sick infant plus two other young children, she had understandably forgotten it. Of course there was no easy parking surrounding the hospital, and of course I got lost trying to find the room they were in. But I found them. And I ended up staying all day.

We took turns holding and cuddling the baby, attached to her teeny IV drip. We made sure we both ate. We wrote down the baby’s vitals, when she had a bottle and how much, when she peed and how much. We took turns making formula at the nurses’ station. We got fresh cups of coffee from the cafeteria. We both called our husbands and our families to make sure everyone else was okay too, and taken care of. Then slowly, over many hours, we watched the baby get better together.

It does take a village to raise a child. It takes a street full of neighbors and a town full of family and friends. It takes so much energy and stamina being a parent, it is simply not possible to manage sanely without the support of others. I feel this to my bones; I know this in my heart. You and me, the neighbors and our friends: we are all part of something special – this community we call parenthood, this community we call home.