Motherhood: The Parts They Leave Out

The internet is a toxic place. Better yet, there's actually TOO much information online to the point of actually questioning if you're making the right decisions for you and your child.

We've all been there. Being faced with a new challenge of the day wondering what the actual fuck is the right way to handle it. You start to question yourself big time and then you start to question the results of your decisions if they were the best thing to do. Then you start to join mom groups to find community to feel some sort of semblance of sanity. There's something beautifully chaotic about these mom groups. Some of these girls get it. Others, not so much. Pure chaos. Now you're days in and somehow absorbed 17 different conflicting opinions about sleep training, two arguments about screen time because you know, they know better than you right? Doom scrolling the group and noticing who uses the best baby wrap or the best snack cup for kids at the beginning turns into a full philosophical debate about childhood. The noise is real. The connection is also real. Two things can be true at the same time. We learn to try to take what helps and scroll past the rest is probably one of the most underrated skills of modern parenting.

If you haven't noticed, we have access to so much more parenting information than any generation before us. Times have most definitely changed and somehow, it's made us feel less confident. At some point, all that input tends to drown out the one voice that actually knows your child best - yours. Research has a place, but so does exiting your socials or google and trusting your gut. It is NEVER wrong.

Which leads me into the big and final one point I want to get across: questioning your worth. The "am I doing enough?" question doesn't arrive just once. It arrives when we can't sleep at 2am, sitting in the waiting room of your pediatrics office over thinking if you're forgetting something to mention to them today, or if you're in the school drop off line and glance over at the mom waiting outside her car looking more put together than you do because you tried to nap right before your alarm went off. Sweats and hoodie and all. It's relentless. But here's what no one is saying out loud: the fact that you ARE over thinking and questioning it all means you care deeply. More than you give yourself credit for. Women who aren't lying awake wondering don't care as much as you do. This doubt you're feeling is not a sign of weakness. It doesn't mean that you're failing. It just goes to show you take your title as someone's mom that much more seriously.

The overconsumption of our generation is so real. Everyone has got something to say it seems. Just always remember to check back in with yourself to bring yourself down to your reality and remember who you are. Their mom. If you needed to hear this today, you are a good mom sister!