Pressure Off...

So I was watching Oprah yesterday and they had a show featuring moms all across the country. The audience was full of moms, they Skyped moms from different locations, and they also had interview with different moms who honestly told what they do as mothers. The show was hilarious! My favorite interview was with a mom who doesn't always have time to bathe her kids; so what she does is have them go into the spa, hoping the jets will clean them! Her red headed daughter,(who looked about 3) has dreads now, and calls herself Bob Marley. In the interview, the red headed daughter was totally singing "Get Up Stand Up," talk about the best thing ever. But one of the key subjects they were trying to express to mothers, and single girls everywhere was the key to being honest.

Many of the woman they were interviewing were expressing that their lives were turned upside down from having children. A lot of women admitted to losing who they were, they admitted that they didn't always like being a mom, and they also admitted that no one told them what they were getting themselves into. One of the guests expressed that she had this idea of motherhood, that she had to clean, cook, make her kids go to sleep when they were supposed to, and most of all, pleasure her husband regularly. And she told the women in the audience to stop putting such huge expectations on yourself. Be realistic, because everyone thinks they're going to be a great mom, until they have kids and then they're thrown for a loop.

What I really liked about yesterdays show was the fact that they wanted to let single women know that we are all going to change when we have kids. What were once our priorities are no longer anymore, and what was once a decent social life, is basically non-existent. The encouraging factor to all of this, was the fact that they said to be easy on yourself. If you can't cook just yet, if you're not good with kids, if you can't stand to be around children for more then 5 minutes-IT'S OK!!!! And don't think you're going to be a bad mother, wife, or human being if you can't have everything perfect by 5 pm. I was so encouraged by that. Not only is it OK to be myself, but it's OK to keep being myself when I have a family of my very own. Let me tell you it took a lot of pressure off. And although I love the shopping trips with the girls, the coffee dates, and late nights; things will change when all of us start having families. I just hope we are all honest with each other when we do; asking for help, even if it's for our first diaper change, (literally our first!)