Motherhood.
Its a journey like no other. Its full of highs and lows, good days and bad and brings more love and exhaustion that you can ever imagine. But it can also feel incredibly lonely. Most would assume as you are about to embark on this journey in to motherhood, that you will be surrounded by lots of love and support and make "mummy friends". This is very true in most cases and certainly in mine, but you cant help but feel incredibly lonely despite all the support around you.
Its hard not to feel alone in the middle of the night when your up with a crying baby, holding a bowl for your vomiting child, or feel human when you haven't even managed to brush your hair or teeth because you have had a little person attached to you all day.
The past week has been one of my worse weeks to date since Rich left. The children have been so poorly and we were housebound for days. Why I am surrounded by lots of support, when you are at your lowest you cant help but fall in to that dangerous area of "comparing yourselves to other mums". Social media is a wonderful thing, I'm a huge fan as you may guess, but it also can be the devils work. I myself am guilty of posting that perfect Instagram photo, uploading my best selfie and the little moments that I feel are beautiful. I never seem to post a selfie with an unmade face and I will rarely show the messy parts of my home. But lets face it we are all guilty of not showing these parts of our lives.
This week (probably due to the cabin fever I was experiencing) I went completely out of my comfort zone and took to Instagram stories to talk, rant, moan and update about my week, with NO MAKE UP. I revealed I hadn't showered in 2 days, that I couldn't remember if I had brushed my teeth and that I hadn't eaten a proper meal in over 5 days. Had someone asked me to do this in advanced I would have laughed and told them to jog on, for the fear of trolls or peoples hurtful comments, judging me and calling me names. However it had the opposite affect. I was blown away by the amount of women who got in touch to say they had loved my insta stories this week, that it made them feel normal! Human! and that they weren't the only ones. Women who said they made it part of their evening routine to sit down and watch me gave me that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you watch a Disney film (don't deny it you know what I mean) To know that I have made an impact on someone and made them feel better about themselves and the job they are doing as a mum, means more to me than they will know.
From a tired, exhausted and frustrated mummy, I thank you! Your comments and words have meant the world and made me realise that we should all be a little more open and honest about our struggles. No one is super women, we all loose our sh*t , there are days when we don't have time to eat or shower because our little people need us. While these beautiful pages on Instagram posted by mums who appear to "have it all together" with their perfect outfits, their immaculate children and their clean homes that look like they should be in ideal home magazine. We must remember its not their real life all day everyday. Yes we get those days where we feel like we are winning at life and by all means share it, I do! For most mums those days are little victory's where we pat ourselves on the back and say "I did good today go me". But just remember that perfect Instagram mum also has days where she is pulling her hair out, her house is a mess and her child doesn't co operate. She might not show it, but it happens!
I for one have learnt a lesson this week in that honesty is the way forward and being true to yourself. If you having a bad day say, it doesn't make you a bad mum. Know you did the best you could that day, and if that was feeding the kids toast for dinner, you have survived off tea and you haven't even brushed your hair then go you! your doing fab!
From one mummy to another, please know your not alone. we all have those days.
Natasha x
No comments
Post a Comment