Struggles of a Young Mom

Let me know if you moms out there can relate to any of these…

All the girls my age still have their pre-pregnancy bodies.

It’s nice to have the standard of a nice body be lowered for those of us that have had children. Anybody ever heard, “Hey you look great for having a baby!” Whatever, I’ll take it.

But hey, tiger stripes are cool, right?

I have a cute bag, but it looks like this on the inside.

Notice the baby socks, the jingly toy that I no longer hear when I walk. I didn’t plant these things; in fact, I’m surprised I didn’t have a pack of wipes and a sippy cup like I usually do. (Ps. there’s a diaper hidden in the zip pocket).

I no longer know what the kids are up to these days (even though I’m only about 1.5 years older than them).

I find myself saying things like “I’ve been seeing the girls wear things like this on pinterest and when I drive to school.” And then I wince a little bit when I hear my voice and the voice of my mother become one in my flashback to middle school (minus the Pinterest part).

I no longer care what the kids are up to these days.

Is it weird that I don’t find a lot of the music on the pop stations as appealing as I did in high school? Or that I wish I had all my old mix tapes from middle and high school?

There’s so many new words and abbreviations. Hangry, yolo, bae. I have to ask my little sisters what these things mean!

Also, is it weird that I can tell the girls who are on Pinterest vs the girls who are not? If you think about it, you totally can! (Not to judge those girls at all, about 50% of my internet time is spent on Pinterest).

I’m a lot more confident and a lot more insecure about a whole new set of things.

What I used to care so much about in high school and college doesn’t matter anymore- the clothes, who your friends were, what you did over the weekend. Having 0 plans Friday night is actually something I can look forward to.

A whole new set of things to be insecure about has set in:

• So and so’s mom looks great and she’s only 6 weeks postpartum!
• Baby Sally already knows her please and thank you’s and my baby still calls me “dada.”
• Darn it, why is it that I only remember baby sign language after I’m cleaning up the meal?!

When I walk around Liberty campus (or the mall, the park, whatever applies to you), I feel old. Even if everyone thinks I’m fitting in, I feel 10 years older than everyone else I’m with.

Even if technically I’m only a year older than graduating seniors, I feel like I’m ten years older. Our lives could not be more different. I’m thinking about what I’m making for dinner and if it’s baby-led-weaning compatible. I’m thinking about that insurance bill we got in the mail the other day and who I need to call, spend 50 minutes on the phone with, and get nowhere again (sorry, mini rant there).

I was the first one from my high school graduating class to get married and have a baby.

I’m 23 now, going on 24 and I can still count on one hand the amount of people from high school who are in the same stage of life as me.

I’m the “mom friend.”

Out of most of our friends, we are the home that can never lock our door because there’s a large chance that someone will come over for something as soon as we do. I have an unhealthy lack of fear when I’m home alone and I hear our backdoor open, because it’s probably one of the kids coming to do laundry or use our kitchen, whatever it may be.

We have the best advice for headaches, colds, sore muscles, etc.

We have good “boy” advice because, you know, we’ve been there.

At least once a week I think to myself “Oh, I forgot to have lunch today…”

This is probably just another mom thing in general.

Everyone asks my husband and I “So how are you doing?”

And we know what they mean. “Are you guys fighting a lot with the stress of being young, married, and raising a child?” Can we trust that your smiles are true happiness and not a facade of parents who wish they had done things differently?”

The answer is, “We’re rolling with it and we’re happy!” If you’re worried about our marriage, offer to babysit! We’d love a date night!

Yes, our life is way different than the life a lot of our friends live, but we wouldn’t change a thing!

There’s moments when we will feel a small pang of jealousy at the spontaneity and and control our friends have over their own lives. That’s being completely honest. But at the same time, they don’t yet know the joy is it to have your child scream and laugh in excitement when you walk in the door, or to be the one to make it better when they have the sniffles and can’t sleep. It’s draining, but so worth it.

I’m sure there are one hundred more “struggles” I could add to this list but these were the ones that were in the front of my mind. Tell me your struggles as a young mom, average mom, older mom. I’d love to hear!

Chels