5 Things Your Mom Friends Don’t Tell You

There’s truly nothing like a mother’s love. In that magical moment when you become a mom, you know you’d do absolutely anything for your child…and then you spend the rest of your life proving it.

While we would never imply that it’s possible to be 100% prepared for motherhood, it certainly doesn’t hurt to know the inside scoop. When you announce that you’re having a baby, the advice will of course start pouring in, but there are a few things that your mom friends might not tell you. We’re here to help fill in some of the gaps.

1. Everything will make you cry. Not just the things you’d expect, like tragic news stories, your baby’s first smile, or the realization that you’re legitimately unsure about when you last showered. You’ll cry because your husband made coffee, and you’re so grateful. You’ll cry because your mom brought over your old teddy bear, and you’re so nostalgic. You’ll cry because your newborn stopped crying, and you’re so relieved.

You’ll cry every time you see a commercial on TV. Not just the ones about life insurance and animal shelters…all of them. You’ll cry during commercials for cleaning products because they’ll make you think about how much more you’ll need to clean the floor once your child starts crawling. You’ll cry during car commercials, because they’ll make you think about your child being old enough to drive. You’ll cry during Doritos commercials because you just really want Doritos but you don’t want to set a bad example.

At first, you’ll think it’s just hormones and sleep deprivation, but when your kids are in middle school, and you’re still tearing up at every sad song and Subaru ad, you’ll just accept your fate and switch to waterproof mascara.

2. You will start talking to strangers all the time.

This seems odd, since, “Don’t talk to strangers!” has been a staple of parentally-sourced advice for generations. Once you have a kid, though, you’ll end up in full-on conversations with everyone from the cashier at Target to the family sitting next to you in the pediatrician’s waiting room to the guy who changes your oil. It starts with other people approaching you to tell you how cute your baby is, and then one day, a comment about your cute baby will evolve into a cereal aisle heart-to-heart about the challenges of breast pumping. Before you know it, YOU’LL be the one walking up to people you’ve never met to start exchanges ranging from small talk to real talk to bonding moments.

3. There are SO many more ways for your kid to get sick than you ever imagined. You’ve probably been warned about the trials of teething, and maybe even the runny nose your little ones will have from the moment they have their first playdate to somewhere around age 8. But no one warns you about the really crazy (but fairly common) bugs your babe can catch.

Whooping Cough sounds like something that shouldn’t even exist anymore, but somehow it does. Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease seems like something you’d only have to worry about if you’re a horse, but no…it’s a virus that will cause your human baby to break out in painful blisters and possibly make their fingernails fall off. Having this information doesn’t make it any easier to watch your little one suffer, but at least you might worry less knowing that they aren’t dealing with some sort of uncharted ailment.

4. Even the most “authentic” mom moments on social media are probably still a little fake.

Wherever you end up falling on the spectrum between the mom who hosts Pinterest-perfect birthday parties every year and the one who runs to the grocery store the morning of for a giant bag of pizza rolls and a sheet cake (which, let’s face it, is all your kid wants anyway), the things you share on social media are probably not an accurate representation of your life. A sliver of your life, maybe…but not the whole thing.

So next time you feel discouraged by another mother’s Instagram feed, remember that just outside the frame of that artfully plated homemade organic baby food, there are probably sweet potatoes splattered all over her kitchen cabinets. Remember that the selfie where she and her toddler are both smiling sunnily into the camera might have been the 20th attempt…and it might have been followed by an epic meltdown or an unfortunate yogurt pouch explosion. And when you think, “Geez, even her MESSES look cuter than mine!” remember that filters work on pictures of dirty dishes and Lego-covered floors just the same as anything else.

5. You’ll never actually figure out what you’re doing…and that’s ok.

We begin motherhood with no experience but plenty of determination, gagging our way through endless diaper blowouts and waking up for 3 a.m. feedings that inevitably end with barf on our shoulders. We take on the responsibility of removing boogers from another human’s teeny tiny nose, and later the even more daunting task of convincing a slightly bigger human not to eat said boogers.

As your kids get older, their booger consumption will (hopefully) decrease, but as a mom, you’ll move on to different milestones, like finding last week’s sweaty soccer uniform mildewing steamily under the bed two hours before this week’s practice. You’ll get to explain, ever-so-gently, why deodorant might be a prudent addition to your sweet child’s morning routine.

Your once-healthy blood pressure will reach alarming highs from the passenger seat when it’s time for driving lessons, and you’ll spend hours trying to craft a pre-prom night “talk” that conveys your immense wisdom and unwavering values without detracting from your (self-bestowed) status as a cool mom.

So you’ll get familiar with the routines, and you’ll get accustomed to the challenges…and then they’ll change. Usually when you feel like you’re really getting good at something, it means that particular parenting skill is about to become obsolete. Frustrating? Yes. But it’s also one of the most amazing parts of motherhood…that you get to grow right along with your children.

If you’re not a mom, all this might sound terrifying. If you are, you know that it kind of is…but that it’s 100% possible to be terrified and ecstatic at the exact same time. If you’re a mother, you’ve held out your hands, open and fearless, because no matter how many times your children offer you partially-chewed corndogs, recently removed baby teeth, or various backyard wildlife specimens, there’s always the chance that all they want to put in your hand is their hand. And THAT. That’s what we live for.

One way to turn down the worry and turn up the joy is to make sure there’s a plan in place to help protect your children if you’re not there to do it yourself. Finding the right life insurance policy probably isn’t something your mom friends have talked to you about either, but that’s ok…because you found Our Life Covered℠, and that’s kind of what we do.

While you’re here, grab a free quote, and we’ll help guide you from there. Because peace of mind feels good at any stage of motherhood!

Originally published at www.ourlifecovered.com.