“I don’t know about letdown or leaking when a baby cries. I don’t know about raw or chapped nipples. I don’t have battle scars or badges of honor that are inscribed with, ‘Breastfed my baby until 2.’ None of it. But tell me, my sweet baby, did I love you any less?”
“We sat in a circle on a bedroom floor. ‘Last night daddy went swimming. His body died. He won’t come home ever again.’ One week after the funeral, I received a call: ‘You have cancer, and not the run-of-the-mill kind. It travels distantly and doesn’t always respond to treatments.’ The rubble of my life had just caught fire.”
“I am not a working mom or a stay-at-home mom. I am both. Somehow, someway, us moms always make the impossible happen.”
“I had major ‘imposter syndrome.’ I was obsessed with telling myself I wasn’t good enough.”
“I wanted to scream, ‘This baby strapped to my chest almost died last night. Our world is falling apart.’ Our dreams were shattered. We found ourselves back in our hometown looking for purpose.”
“I took on 3 different jobs to pay tuition. My dad said, ‘Remember to always believe in yourself and you can accomplish it.’ Coming home from work, my husband was hit by a car on the freeway. I was unknowingly 8 weeks pregnant. We knew there was more we needed to accomplish together; our life did not end there.”
“It’s exhausting trying to pump gas or sit in my kids’ karate class and be stared at constantly. When people see my face, they assume my intelligence.”
“People will NOT feel sorry for you if you CHOOSE to beat yourself up.”
“It’s investing in your startup business no one knows about. It’s no longer waiting for a socially distant invite from that popular mom group. It’s declining a dinner invitation because, no, you can’t afford it this month. It’s working hard every day, even when you might not see immediate results.”
“My boy, you looked so young tonight. So small, so little, and so baby-like. I couldn’t help but worry about how you will feel—how you will cope—when you aren’t so young. I hope I am enough. I hope I can be what you need.”
