Monthly Archives: October 2015

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Just because I work full time, doesn’t mean I’m not a full-time mom.

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I wrote this post about a month ago and was a little conflicted about sharing it. But here goes. It’s kind of ranty, but that’s how I was feeling at the time.

A good friend (single, no-children, male) recently asked me if I was “still doing the full-time mom thing” or if I’d gone back to work. My immediate response was, “Yes.” Yes, I’ve been back at the office for several months now. And, yes, I’m also a full-time mom. Then I started thinking about the language that is used to describe moms and motherhood. Stay At Home Mom. Work At Home Mom. Working Mom. Part Time Working Mom. Full Time Working Mom. There are probably other labels that I don’t even know about. What do you call a mom who owns her own business that has always been run out of her home, and still does that now, with a baby to care for? What about an artist who creates in an in-home studio, and also has two kids at home most days? There are so many different situations and scenarios for families and mothers and childcare, it’s kind of ridiculous to have labels for everything. And what do all of these women have in common? They are ALL full-time moms!!!! However, this label seems to be reserved for moms who stay at home (working or not) and have their children at home (not in daycare).

Now, I know he meant to distinguish between staying at home vs. working outside of the office, but as someone who pays attention to language and words and semantics a lot, that kind of hit home for me, and got me thinking about the words we use to talk about motherhood.

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Breastfeeding won’t make you skinny (and other postpartum pains)

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One of the many, many things women are told when they’re pregnant is that breastfeeding will make you skinny. “It literally melts your fat away!” “Your baby will suck you right back down to your pre-pregnancy weight!” Sounds great! Sign me up! What they don’t tell you is that for as long as you breastfeed, your body will basically stay “soft,” no matter how much you work out. Something to do with the hormones and oxytocin or something. Which is fine, as even at my smallest, I never had 6-pack abs anyway, so whatevs.

I also was constantly told that being in good shape before pregnancy, and keeping up working out as long as I did would help me soo much during childbirth and recovery, and would make me “bounce back” super fast after having the baby. That was so encouraging, and I totally believed it!

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I just had a baby – now how the f*** do I dress myself?

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Well, I’ve been feeling pretty guilty lately about not writing in over a month. I have no excuses. There have been so many things I’ve wanted to write about, but as I start forming brilliant ideas for relevant, funny and insightful posts (at least they are all of those things in my head!), I start to get overwhelmed thinking about the time it will take me to write, and then edit my always-too-long thoughts. Then I think about how I haven’t done anything cool with the layout of this blog, or even added photos…. and so I just do nothing.

But anyway, here I am. With the changing weather and the necessity to start digging into clothing for a new season, I want to revisit this topic I jotted down a long time ago and saved to write about later…

How To Dress Yourself After Having A Baby

Congratulations! You had a baby! You spent the last 9 months constantly adjusting your wardrobe to fit your growing belly, and boobs, and feet. You figured out what shoes you can wear every single day without having to bend down to put them on or tie any laces. You discovered 5 million different ways to wear maternity leggings. Now you’re done with all of that! You have a baby! You now can go back to wearing all of your cute and familiar pre-pregnancy clothes and not have to worry about anything except for cuddling with your sweet baby who sleeps 12 hours a night and never cries!

Wait, that’s not right.

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