Mothers, Stop Guilt-Tripping Your Kids
They don’t need to know your problems.
I started writing about motherhood as a way to normalise the good, the bad, and the ugly.
It is highly glorified in the media and in society. We are given this image of a goddess of a mother who bosses an amazing career while still finding time to breastfeed her baby and go to her older son’s football games, all while somehow, the house remains spotless.
This picture is false. It is misleading and it is conditioning girls to aspire to be something that doesn’t align with their desires. It is also assuming that achieving this supermum look will bring happiness. Only the bar seems to be incredibly high and often we are left feeling unfulfilled when we don’t meet the standards set by this image.
I started writing about the negative effects that motherhood has had on me as a way to normalise it in all its forms. I wrote about the struggles I went through as my identity changed, the sleep-deprivation, the fear of failure, and the guilt I felt continuously.
Motherhood, especially in the beginning, is exhausting, and not just “I’m exhausted after a day’s work” exhausting, but mind numbingly shattering.
