Sometimes the mom's make me feel inadequate though. Let's take a few weeks ago at the park for example.
I was meeting a girlfriend of mine and her two children at one of the many parks in my town. When I arrived, I unloaded all of my children and their paraphernalia into my double stroller and wheeled over to my friend who was chatting with another mom. This mom I had met on two other occasions and she intimidates me a little. That day she was dressed very cutely in a navy blue and white striped top, cute jeans, a brown messenger bag across her body and an adorable fedora jauntily placed on her head. She has two little girls. One is roughly 8 months older than Jack and the other is a month older then Ben. Both were dressed cute and the older girl was playing nicely on the swings. At one point she handed me her baby to hold while she retrieved healthy snacks for her oldest. I was shocked.....this baby smelled like she was wearing perfume she smelled so good.
Then there's me.
I was wearing yoga pants and a t-shirt to hide the remaining baby gut that I still have. I don't remember if I had brushed my teeth that day and wasn't wearing makeup. Jack was dirty and throwing woodchips, and Ben smelled like baby sweat and old formula. My snack was a pack of Welch's fruit snacks (he doesn't usually have a big snack or he won't eat lunch). We barely made it out of the house that day intact.
I don't know if I hate this chick or totally have a crush on her.
I could let this make me feel bad about myself or I could realize that this is what this woman does. She's a stay at home mom. This is her every day life. Mine is on hiatus. I normally balance work with kids and feel out of sorts now.
But I have been making a bit more of an effort with how I dress. I put makeup on more days and wear "real" clothes.
My kids may be a work in progress, but they now at least smell like hers thanks to this:
2 comments:
Sometimes, I think it's not that others are trying to make us feel bad as much as we're self-conscious and critical about what we think are our own inadequacies and are assuming others are critical as well.
Boom.
Anyway, I've observed and been a part of the mommy-guilt thing for years. At least you're not running a meth lab or putting vodka in their bottles. Right?
Mommy-guilt and feeling self-conscious about ourselves is, unfortunately, the "joys" of being a woman. Sometimes it seems we got the short end of the stick, eh?
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