Before And After Motherhood

  Before I had children, this is what I envisioned it would be like.  The perfectly behaved children, neat and clean, and my hair and make-up always done (not just when I went out of the house), and my children fascinated by what I was reading them. Oh, and don't forget the lake house and perfect summer weather.


After I had children, more often than not it looked more like this...


But to be completely honest, reality- motherhood falls somewhere in between these extremes--most of the time.

The title of this post is a bit misleading because once you become a mother, you don't ever stop being a mother, so there is no AFTER motherhood. When my children were infants, I couldn't wait until they could sleep through the night. When they were teenagers, I wished they wouldn't stay out so late because I worried if they'd make it home safely, and couldn't they just be little again? Little children, little problems. Big children (well, you know the rest).

When they were babies, I couldn't wait until I didn't have to nurse anymore. When they were older, I'd wish they still would want to cuddle and depend on me completely. Couldn't wait until they could walk and talk, then when they did I was exhausted from chasing them around all day, keeping them out of harm's way and answering all the constant "why's" and "Mom's".

My sister-in-law, who came from a family of five, said her mother got so tired of constantly hearing whiney "Mom!!!" that she told them half-seriously that she was going to change her name to a swear word and beat them for saying it. And she was a Christian woman!

So for any of you wanna-be moms out there, pictures don't tell the whole story. We all would like to think that the first picture (above) is the quintessential picture of motherhood. And the precious mother in the second picture, carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, is how we should all look at one another. We all have our share of heartaches, some maybe more than others, but we can all just stop comparing ourselves with one another.

The AFTER motherhood, if we are so blessed, is called GRANDmotherhood. And. It. Is.