Oh, Mom.

When you’re a young girl, you’re told to chase your dreams, go to college, become self-sufficient. What you aren’t told is that perhaps one day that you will be a mom. You aren’t told that that your life will no longer be yours once you birth your beautiful baby. You aren’t told that the word “I” disappears from your vocabulary.

So you go. You go to college and you become the best version of yourself and you make a career you are proud of. You do your job with passion and with care because, after all, you worked your whole life to get here. You did it! You made it.

What no one bothers to tell you is that once that little slobbery child comes along, the days become longer – oh my, how they drag. The working hours last longer than your home hours. No one tells you that sometimes you’ll cry in the mornings putting on your mascara because you’d rather snuggle and smell that sweet baby smell while you can. You start over on your mascara because it’s smeared everywhere and this is just a Monday.

No one bothers you to tell you that you will miss so much. No one warns the working momma that they will miss the first steps, the first words…You aren’t warned of these things and you cry, silently and alone, more nights than you'd wish and more instances than you'd ever admit.

Education is pushed upon us more and more and we struggle to become the mommas we want to be because we’re tied to careers we’re in debt to and chained to the jobs we worked so hard to get. Before them. We’re thankful for our jobs and we constantly defend them when someone says, without knowing, “I don’t know how you can work and be away from your babies.” They don’t know that those words are like a knife to you because you want to be a mom so much, but you also want to do your job. After all, you worked for twenty some odd years to get here. You can’t just throw it away.

No one tells you that you’ll miss school plays, award ceremonies, class crafts, and so much more because you are the one behind the scenes, caring for those who need you. No one tells you that you’ll be late for the Easter party because a patient needed you a little longer than expected and you so want to be good at your job too. You want to be the best you can be, at everything.
No one tells you that you’ll feel like you’re failing at everything. Your planner will burst with things for everyone else. Your life becomes one big mess of appointments and practices and work. You’ll look like you handle it all with grace and precision, but what nobody sees is that you are just like that duck, paddling ferociously under water just to stay afloat.

We working mommas have it tough – our minds in one spot and our hearts in the other. We try so hard not to miss a beat, not to miss an event, and not to make a mistake. We work and we mom the best we can. No one tells you how hard this is. No one warns you that there are days you wish you could just be mom. They tell you how quickly it goes, how fast your kids grow – what they fail to mention is how much you really do miss. You know your kids will be proud one day and you do hope you're teaching them to be the best they can be. So your cry and go on to tomorrow because you're mom, after all. You CAN do it all.