Feelings of being a Mother
‘Motherhood is special’
‘Motherhood is sacred’
‘Motherhood is pure’
‘Motherhood is a blessing’
‘Motherhood is an ultimate joy’
‘Motherhood is overwhelming’
‘Motherhood changes life’
Honestly, Motherhood cannot be expressed in a few words.
Motherhood is not defined by a time-period of sleepless days and nights, changing diapers and cleaning of the mess here and there.
Motherhood gives you as a woman the power to raise a new life into a fully grown mature human being. It gives the power to shape lives with your love, affection, beliefs and teachings, lives which will influence the world we live in. A mother has the ability to instil the foundation of tastes, habits, thoughts and choices in her child.
And haven’t we heard that with great power comes great responsibilities?
But the big question here is that are you prepared to take up the bundle of responsibilities that come along with Motherhood?
Many mothers silently suffer from feelings of losing their identity which they had before becoming a mother. Changes in physical appearance after childbirth are the main reasons for developing the feeling of not being oneself.
Understanding the needs of your newborn can take time.
The guilt of not knowing how to make your baby stop crying, not knowing what your baby exactly wants, not knowing how to hold the baby properly or rock perfectly to sleep during the initial days of childbirth, makes every woman feel incapable and lacking her confidence.
Why am I not able to do this? I am a smart & educated woman, I can handle large teams of people, I don’t lose control in difficult situations. Why am I not able to calm down and understand my own baby, my own child? Why am I not able to make these moments right and perfect? Why am I crying?
The fear of not being able to be a ‘Good Mom’ lingers with every new mother.
To make the matters worse, there are those celeb moms trying to become some kind of role model mums or ‘Cool Moms’, flaunting their post-pregnancy lean figures everywhere. And then there are social media platforms full of photos of ever happy kids of friends and cousins, making one envy – Why are they like that and not me? However, those seemingly perfect pics on the internet are not even half of the complete reality of motherhood.
A mother would always dress up her kids prim and pretty so that they look the smartest kids when they are out of the house, when she herself would not get time to comb her hair or even take shower every day.
Children might keep playing around but raising a child is not a child’s play.
As mind and body of children develop with growing age, it requires a constant evaluation and enactment on their changing needs, be it studies, extracurricular activities, wardrobe, toys, diet or even keeping a track of their teeth.
Being overwhelmed and exhausted with children, mothers are left with scarce time for themselves. This sometimes also makes them cut off from their social groups which they enjoyed before having the child. Especially during the beginning years of motherhood, many women have felt lonely and disconnected from the presumed fun part of life.
That small ‘me time’ they so much cherished gets converted into ‘all your time’.
Soon, mothers find their daily routine getting set as per their children’s daily activity routine.
And this continues till the time children grow enough to take care of their basics themselves.
Not to forget that children especially younger ones are silent observers and fast learners. So minding own behaviour in front of children also becomes a regulation.
Working women having small children have often felt self-guilt of giving time to anything else over their children.
Many women find Motherhood to be hard, tough, testing and depleting.
But does that mean that a mother is a weak sole?
Absolutely not !!
Try going to her kid with any malice and that very moment that same sacrificing mother would turn into a Tigeress to claw at you.
No matter how old a child or the mother gets, the well-being of the child always remains the top-most priority of every mother.
A mother is the most unacclaimed yet the strongest human being.
Yet, while being strong, there are moments of judgements from society, self-doubt, self-healing, self-discovery along with numerous changes that happen physically and mentally inside the body of a mother as she progresses through her age as a woman.
Self-care is an equally important requirement of being a mother.
Lastly, I think the most significant virtue that comes with motherhood is Forgiveness, learning to forgive your child and learning to forgive yourself for not being able to be flawless.
Motherhood is not a road to perfection.
There is no ideal mother, just like there is no ideal human being. Utopia exists only in fiction and Motherhood is Real.
Practice might make you good at one skill of raising a child but it will not make you a perfect mother, because your child will keep surprising you with new situations to handle every now and then. And it is the immense trust of your child in you that will give you the strength and courage to perform your best.
Motherhood is a journey of making a woman – A Stronger Human Being.
And isn’t every mother also born from a mother? I have always felt some kind of an integral strength in my Mom which I am yet to develop.
Share your thoughts and moments of motherhood in the comments below.
Let there be no hush up about it.
Discussing always helps personally and it will also be of great help to other women.
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I believe that God gave the special gift of bearing and raising a child to women because he made us strong and capable of doing it.
True indeed! Those look like thoughts of a strong mother 🙂