14 Feb YELM: Motherhood Is Great

In every sense of the word, motherhood is great. It’s great in a big, happy, all-consuming way. It’s great in a heavy, lonely, and exhausting way. It is rewarding and stressful and heartbreaking and prideful and exhausting…did I mention it’s exhausting? This constant dichotomy of feelings is normal for moms. It’s the reason why we look forward to naptime and bedtime and we look at pictures of our kids while they sleep. It’s the reason why we want to do it all and run from it all.

It’s great.

I recently got to thinking about myself as a mother, how it feels, and what life looks like for me in this role. I think there’s a growing number of moms who speak openly about motherhood – it’s not all snuggles and giggles – and I Am! Here! For! It!

In the spirit of sharing and normalizing normal, motherhood for me is a story of two truths. Here’s what I mean:

I relish slow days with my two small children as they soak up the world around them, joyously sharing each small discovery and experience with me AND I am drained by the relentless nature of babies/toddlers and their fascination with repetition.

I fiercely defend and support my child’s ambling developmental path to a full night’s sleep AND I wish like hell he would just sleep already!

I spend an unbelievable amount of time in the kitchen every day AND, yet, there are still dirty dishes in the sink…?

I feel the crushing weight of expectation to be a mom that successfully does it all – raise bright, happy children; care for myself; care for my husband; care for our home; maintain friendships; maintain a career; etc. – AND … actually, there’s no
‘and’ here. This exists and I feel it and I’m sure you do too.

I am so busy AND I do nothing. Or at least nothing that I can point to and say, ‘look what I did!’ Unless you count laundry or keeping children alive and fed and happy! Which ABSOLUTELY counts.

Motherhood is great. As a mom, it’s normal to feel joy and warmth AND to feel tired and bored. It is normal and okay to feel both. Feeling the negative does not take away from the positive. Let’s keep normalizing normal.

Share your conflicting/opposing/equally true feelings of motherhood below 🙂

– YELM, Greta

Read more posts by Greta, Your Ever Loving Mother (YELM), as she journals to normalize parenting challenges, joys, and stresses.