Once becoming a parent, I felt that I joined some universal parent club, where certain jokes and memes all of the sudden made sense and I understood what people meant when they said that having a child was like having a piece of your heart walking outside of your body. I am not all that far into my parenthood journey—I have an almost-12-year-old and six-year-old—and after speaking to my own mother recently about when you stop worrying about your children (ahem…never), I am holding my breath for all of the surprises that are around the corner. You don’t know what you don’t know until you get to that next stage.
Even still, I believe we overly romanticize parenthood sometimes, and particularly motherhood. My generation especially works so hard to be perfect parents—to always say the right thing, and implement the current social-emotional learning tactics, and correct all of the wrongs of past iterations of parenting.
But frankly? Parenting is hard, I am not always excelling at it, and I purposely chose mediocrity at times.
There are many aspects of motherhood that I just do not hear people talking about, and I think, I cannot be the only one.
Not everyone experiences mom guilt. I do not feel mom guilt. Should I feel guilty that I do not feel guilty?
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