Being a mother is carrying a tiny human being in your body for nine months while your flat stomach and perky breasts morph into something you could never image. It’s uncomfortable and emotional from this point on. You become a snot rag and a sleep deprived superhero. All of this happens while juggling a career, relationships and putting yourself on the back burner for years to come.
Being a mother is staying up late to wash that third load of laundry and right when you start to drift into slumber, you hear your baby waking up. It means pausing the movie you are watching 37 times. When you are sick, with a fever and vomiting, you have to suck it up and keep going. There are no days off. If you work, coming home after a long day means a speedy trip to the grocery story before picking up the kids and flinging pots onto the stove.
While you cook dinner, laundry gets started and math questions you haven’t seen in over a decade fog your memory. You secretly google on your phone “how to find the volume of a rectangular prism” and turn down the stovetop because something is starting to burn. You get one kid into the shower after telling them for the fourth time. You finally sneak away to undo the bra that has been cutting into your skin since 6am. Finally a brief moment to use the bathroom after holding it since after lunchtime and someone knocks on the door asking if dinner is ready. Fuck, you also just realized you forgot to call someone back and pick up toilet paper at the store. You are always last to shower and right when it’s time to rinse your hair, the water turns cold.
Being a mother means constantly drilling the meaning of life, good morals, lessons and long talks in hopes that your children grow up to be healthy and decent human beings. It also means getting the eye roll, slammed door, whispering not so sweet nothings under their breath as they walk away with blatant disregard for all that you do. Your stomach is filled with worry each time they get sick or hurt. Your heart breaks into two when they get dissed by their first crush at school. You contemplate jail time when you hear about someone else’s kid being a shit head to yours. You have to be the asshole when their C turns into a D right before report cards come out.
Being a mother is a thankless job. It’s being the bad guy, making your children eat vegetables and that they get to bed on time. It’s telling them no when their father tells them yes and you have to deal with the aftermath of a sick or moody kid. It’s a job where you always get criticized and a never ending filing cabinet of complaints. With your spare time, you work and pay bills, balance a chaotic schedule, run to the bank and grocery story several times a week and try not to leave the house with your shirt inside out.
When you walk into your messy home that you just cleaned the night before, dying to get comfortable and sit down, someone is already mad at you for your dinner selection and the toilet is clogged. Oh, and there is a school project due in the morning that you never heard about it and we are out of cat food.
Motherhood: we do it and we do it well, with a smile and lots of concealer. We are tired and sometimes feel invisible, defeated and not good enough. So, while we are your biggest cheerleaders and secretly hope you never move out… don’t forget to say thank you, take photos of us as proof we exist and tell your mom that you love her. That is our fuel, our purpose and what makes it all worth it.
