6 Things Besides the Environment I Started Caring More About After Having Kids.
Having children changed me, even without my meaning for this to happen. I hang out with two little kids all day long, and it’s impossible for this not to shape me.
I care more about some things than ever before—ingredients in store-bought foods, public schools and education—and I care a lot less about other things.
Six things I started caring about after having kids:
1. Rory Gilmore’s love life.
I didn’t watch television before having kids, aside from Seinfeld reruns and football, and the occasional food documentary. Now, however, I have a much needed date each night with Netflix and a glass of wine (and my husband, of course).
Parenting is the most rewarding, hardest job ever. Self-care and downtime are required.
2. The size of my pants.
I started caring more than ever about the size of my pants after having kids. I started paying attention to my attachment to my weight because I’m raising two girls and I want them to avoid the eating-disorder struggles and the self-loathing that I battled. So I’ve given myself permission to be honest about my body image, but to not negatively be defined by my physical self either.
For the first time maybe ever I genuinely love myself. I’m one of those unicorn-moms who wears yoga shorts and doesn’t care what my butt and thighs look like. Deciding to accept that I’ve held myself up to meaningless societal standards for a lifetime ironically helped me purge them.
(It helps that I don’t know my true size, since the yoga pants I live in aren’t that specific.)
3. If I’m liked.
I do care if people like me, but the people pleaser in me largely went away when I had a better reason to grow up and like myself regardless of unimportant outside feedback—my children.
4. If I have food between my teeth.
I do still appreciate a heads up if I have salad from lunch wedged between my two bottom teeth, but since I generally have food on my clothes, or in my hair, it’s really less significant now.
5. Tomorrow.
Planning for our future as a family, and for my kids, is more important to me now than ever, but regularly reminding myself to stay right here in this beautiful chaos that is life with little kids means more than ever, too.
6. Perfection.
I’ll always be a little bit Type A and a lot anal-retentive, but my previous ideas of perfection are nothing like my current ones. Lately, if my house is clean, and the kids and I are clean, and cared for, and fed, then everything else is icing.
Because we have these ideas of what a parent looks like—of what a mother should be—and I, at least, work every day to try to be this ideal creation.
And then I have to force myself to stop; to look in the mirror; to see the real woman looking back at me—to choose to care about her and like her, exactly as she is.
There is no perfect woman.
There is no perfect mother.
We are all perfect.
We are all deserving of love and respect for living authentically inside of our skin and our lives. I hope to teach my daughters this, too.
Thank you for this! It is the most refreshing, truthful goodness that I have had the pleasure of reading in so long! We are all perfect exactly as we are! My baby boy turned one yesterday, he was born with Down Syndrome and this year has been so filled with joy and light and if I were to listen to all of the bullshit advice from the drs and therapists about all of the things my sweet boy won’t do I would be missing out on all that he can and does do! He is absolutely perfect and so is his sister and brother, just as they are! My daughter is 2 and likes to paint and draw and speak in her own special language to her brothers and the same therapists that see my baby see her as she is always with me and they tried to tell me that they see “red flags” in her and for about a split second I believed them:( it was the worst week ive ever had! Then I realized she is her own unique flower and all of the flowers in the garden bloom exactly when they should! Now I am embracing her uniqueness even more! They chose the best mother for i will always advocate for them and let them be exactly who they are! Thank you for reminding me of this tonight! Xoxo
Amanda, I can’t tell you how reading this makes me feel. I so, so understand what you are saying. Our kids are so special, and when we try to view them through an expected range of normal and unnecessary markers of average, we lose sight of what makes them special. It’s incredibly important as parents to understand that our role is to help guide these little people to be the best versions of their authentic selves. I celebrate you and your ability to love so honestly and passionately. xoxo Jennifer