An Unexpected Lesson in Motherhood
The Unexpected Lesson Motherhood Taught Me:
When you scroll a mom’s social media feed you may observe a vast fluctuation of emotions specifically caused by the experience of motherhood. From extreme joy to deep sadness and anywhere in between. An unexpected lesson from motherhood I learned was embracing my happy and my sad… my bee stings and honey.
Postpartum What?
Allow me to take you back to the start of my journey as a brand new, just released from the hospital with a tiny human mama. In my lifetime, babies being born happened often, especially since my mum ran a daycare in our home. Pointedly, in all my recollections I honestly don’t recall anyone talking about postpartum depression or the difficulty and crippling fear that comes in those fresh, newborn weeks. You know, waking up just to hover your ear over your newborns mouth, just to ensure life.
Where Have the Limes Gone?
Vividly, I recall being home all of two days and attempting to make a simple batch of Mexican tacos. The baby was nursed and I have 20 minutes to make dinner as usual. Mastitis was creeping in, standing was uncomfortable, everything was leaking! Moreover, my head succumbed to a thick graying fog that robbed me of all clarity. Naturally, I ravaged the pantry, not the fridge like a ravenous madwoman in search of limes. In truth, when I couldn’t find them everything came undone. One moment I was upright the next, I was sobbing on the floor as my body shook involuntarily. Concerned family members looked on with bulged and questing eyes and quizzical brows.Consequently, my husband with all his senses and wisdom about him grasped me under the arms and returned me to my feet. With all the love and firmness he could muenster he said “ Go to bed immediately.”
Motherhood Teaches Truth :
Fast forward 4 years and here I am a stay at home mama of two. In this short time with two kids, 18 months apart I have learned an unexpected lesson in motherhood. My transparency and realness is actually my strength. When I see others telling mamas that they shouldn’t be parents when they share their real, it hurts my heart. That is the furthest thing from the truth.
Motherhood Teaches Strength:
Absolutely, mothering is a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual journey. By sharing our truest emotions we are strengthening our mental health, we are okay to say “this is me in all my forms.” Our ugly, our tired, our exacerbated, our deeply taxed allows us to find power in the crevices of our deepest selves, in spaces we never knew existed. That is not until, we became a mama.
Motherhood Teaches Understanding:
More importantly, how in the world will we teach our children how to regulate themselves if we refuse to remove our masks of imperfection? Continually, people turn up their noses when a child has a tantrum in a public venue. Better yet, when the kids are well behaved and joyously saying “hello,” they act as if the children are invisible. As a society we have forgotten the beauty of childhood.
Motherhood Teaches Realness:
Recently, my sister reminded me that children are risk-takers, adventurous, fearless and amiable to those who differ from them. Somewhere along the way we hang up our cloaks of childhood. And in doing so, we forfeit the foundations that came to life in the duration of our youth. Clearly, in that once beautiful place there stands hyper critical -fake adults, lacking joy and mercy. Along with that we mistake vulnerability as weakness. Therefore, we morph into numb stone-like creatures, rejecting truth and feelings.
Share On Mama:
That is why I started Beestings and Honey in the first place. To minister to other mamas, and encourage them to see not only the honey but the stings too. Both fortify us, and the benefits flow over into our children. Share on sweet mama, I see you and you are the exact mama we need. The future and well being of our children depends on it.
-Patience
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