The Irony of Motherhood

 

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how ironic my role as a mother is. It seems like so many of the expectations that I had/have as a mom have turned out to be quite the opposite of what I originally thought they would be. My ability to appreciate irony has grown by leaps and bounds since the moment I became a mother. Naturally, I had no idea what to expect until I actually had children of my own, but now that I’m knee-deep in this parenting journey, I’m quickly learning that most things just don’t go as I planned. My children have a way of teaching me every day, through frustration, laughs, and sometimes even tears, that motherhood is chock full of irony. 

The following “ironies” cover a range of the different things, but nonetheless, if you are a mother, you can probably relate…

1. As moms, we often feel frustrated and disappointed about our appearance post-baby, yet at the same time we marvel at what our bodies are capable of, and how amazing childbirth really is.
2. We are often desperate for a moment to ourselves (even a trip to Target sans kids), yet the moment we are away from them, we don’t know what to do with ourselves and feel guilty about leaving them.
3. We clean our houses and cars regularly, but somehow nothing ever looks clean!
4. We’re constantly encouraging our kids to reach the next milestone, and yet the moment they do, we can’t help but feel sad about the fact that they are growing too fast.
5. We talk about all of the things that we will never (under any circumstances) do when we become a mom, and yet somehow we eventually end up doing them all. Which leads me to number 6…
6. We claim that we wouldn’t be caught dead driving a minivan, EVER… yet somehow so many of us end up buying a swagger wagon regardless (and we secretly end up loving it!)
7. We plead with and bribe our children to eat dinner to no avail, yet the moment we are anywhere in public without so much as a stray goldfish in our diaper bag, suddenly our kids are starving! (See #8)
8. We’re always over prepared for every situation. We carry a suitcase filled to the brim with diapers, snacks, spare clothes, hand sanitizer, etc. and we rarely, if ever need any of it, yet the one time we leave the house to run a quick errand without our bag of tricks, is the time our child will have a blowout of epic proportions, leaving us totally s*!# out of luck!
9. We urge our kids to become independent and do things for themselves, yet when they do, we complain about how much longer it takes for even the most mundane task to be completed.
10. We swear that we won’t lose ourselves in motherhood, that becoming a mom won’t change who we are… yet becoming a mother somehow changes everything, and we can’t help but become wrapped up in everything to do with our children.
11. We spend our days willing the clock to inch closer to bedtime, but once our babies are in bed, we feel guilty that we wished another day away, because the most ironic truth of all is that “the days are long, but the years are short.”

I could go on and on, but one thing is for certain, being a mom is one of the toughest jobs there is…. however, even with all of the irony, it’s also one of the most rewarding.