suebaby

A mini rant on society's view of motherhood

Funny how your life becomes complete and total hell when your child won't take an F'ing nap. I really don't even have the energy to share the details about this experience with you, so instead I will just play that game of talking about the first thing that come to mind. A sort of free association, if you will. Will you?

So I will talk about Wife Swap.

Acutally, no I won't.

How come I always seem so incredibly grumpy about being a mom. How come anytime I'm ever reading some other mom's blog, it's all peaches and roses. And I know it's not, but they write like it is. Why in the hell is that? It's that kind of misrepresentation of reality that makes me mad. Why are people so afraid to tell it like it is? What are they worried about? Judgment, probably. I don't know. Or maybe, their lives are super great and their babies take naps and they have time to eat and drink caffeinated beverages. Maybe, but I don't think so.

I think it's hard for everyone, but most women won't say that. Or they'll say, "Being a mom sure keeps me on my toes!" with a little happy face icon following it. But the question is, why won't they really just say it?

Society. That's what I think. I think that women/ girls are socialized to think that having babies and loving it is one of the main joys/ reasons for life. And to admit that it's hard, that it sucks, that you'd really rather be doing something else, makes you sound either like a failure, or even worse, a BAD MOTHER. And we all know that NO woman who has a child wants to be a bad mother... why? because society tells you that you should not only love being a mommy but you should be good at it, too. Nice little vicious cycle.

It just frustrates me because I think that due to this whole thing, I grew up with a skewed view on motherhood. I thought it was going to be fun and easy and I would love it. I mean I didn't literally think all of those things, I'm not a total idiot, but I did think that I was just going to be incredibly happy and satisfied with it all the time. I think that if women were more honest about what it's like, new moms would have a better idea of what to expect. I know I had truly no idea of what I was getting into and I have experience with kids and babies... but it didn't even compare to one day of actually being a mommy.

So, I'm admitting it. Sometimes it really sucks. Sometimes I'd rather be doing almost anything else. Sometimes I just want to run away and cry. And I know that that doesn't make me a bad mom or wife or person. So there.

posted by suebaby @ 6:15 PM