I’ve written a few installments in my ‘All About’ series.
- Earlier this month, I wrote all about what I wish I had known about pregnancy
- In August, I wrote all about my college years and the college I went to
- In July, I wrote about how Nathan and I met
And today, I’m going to write about what I’ve found since joining the ‘mommy-hood.’
If there’s anything that I’ve learned in the 18 months since becoming a mommy, it’s that no mom’s experience having children, keeping said children alive, and raising them to good little humans, is the same. We struggle with different things. We have different triumphs. But there was one thing that I was really scared about before becoming mom, but I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by.
Joining the mommy-hood has been like joining a sisterhood of women. Women with a shared experience that see you where you’re at, do not judge you, and support you. The women that saw me struggling to juggle a diaper bag, baby carrier, and grocery bags that stopped and asked if they could help bring my cart back to the store. Numerous. The women that checked in on me ceaselessly through the first hard, hard, haaaaaard…did I mention they were hard? weeks of having a newborn and just having no freaking clue which way was up. They were my angels. The women at my work-out classes that I had never talked to before, all of sudden came in like triumphant cheerleaders – willing to offer a suggestion of what diaper cream worked best for them, and encourage me for taking time to do something to better myself.
I was so concerned before Harrison about the catty-ness I’d heard about between moms. I’d hear horror stories of moms judging you…as you had dried puke down your back and never realized it walking out of the house. I’m not saying that it hasn’t happened. I’ve been judged. Nathan and I have been judged as parents (ahem – lady sitting across from us at a restaurant when it was the dead of winter and we forgot to bring shoes…and socks for our baby.) But the good, kind fellow mamas of this world far outweigh lady at the burger restaurant.
Being a mom is hard, never ending work. But these women that stand with me and support me. Man, it makes me proud to have joined such an amazing community of women.