This Is Why You Shouldn’t Treat Your Kids Equally

In our country we talk about equality all the time. In America, equality is mostly defined as everyone having the same pay for the same job. Equality defined as seeing people through the same lens. Basically everyone is the same and equal to everyone else.

Yet, when we give everyone exactly the same thing, there always seems to be this underlying discontentment. I think on some underlying level, we know that while we may all be human and share similar basic needs, our needs, wants, desires, hopes and dreams are not the same.

No matter how similar our life is to someone else, we are very different people and this is even more true when you deal with siblings.Continue reading

How To Deal With The Pressure Of Being A Stay-At-Home Mom

Dealing with the pressure of being a stay-at-home mom is like no other.  I was reading a question on a Facebook group yesterday from a new stay at home mom.  In it, she talked about how she stayed up all night obsessing about the areas of her life that she was failing in.  She wanted advice on how to cope.

Unlike the working mom, who is always lauded for balancing life and job and kids, the stay at home mom is held to an impossible standard of perfection.  And we allow it.

Instead of getting advice that she was doing fine, she was giving cleaning day suggestions, activities, and structure ideas.  As stay at home mothers we put a ton of pressure on ourselves. Continue reading

Have You Ever Felt Like A Failure As A Mom?

Mammas, have you ever felt like a failure as a mom?

Tonight was one of those nights that I felt like I failed my son.

I took him to an carnival to see the animals, eat fun food and ride the great rides.  Well we saw the animals, we had a fun dinner, we played on every tractor, looked at all the sheds, he laughed, ran, skipped, ate fun foods.

Then, the rides came. Continue reading

What It’s Like Going From One Child To Two

I remember the morning I went into labor.

It was 3:30 am and my water broke.

I took a shower, got myself cleaned up and went and laid in bed with my son. He snuggled up close to me, holding my hand and I took a couple pictures of us knowing that this was the last moment there’s going to be just the two of us.

This was the happiest and scariest moment in my life.
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Things You Should Do Before Baby 2

On the night before she was born, I held you a little extra tight.  I whispered “I love you” a million times over into your ear and I cried.

Not because I was sad about the impending birth of your little sister, but because of what I fear I will lose. Continue reading

You Can Definitely Lose Weight On The “Toddler Diet”

When I was pregnant with my first everyone said that breastfeeding was the best way to lose all the weight and they were right.  I nursed you for 15 months and after about the first 9 I returned to my pre-pregnancy weight.

Now, unfortunately, I never lost an extra ounce.  Not one darn pound.  Truly I found this mystifying.   It wasn’t until my son turned two that I learned the secret to continued weight loss without the need for exercise that experienced moms all seem to know about.

I have yet to hear it having a proper title, so today I am calling it out by name: The “Toddler Diet.” Continue reading

This Is How I Broke Sleep As A New Mom

I did it all wrong with sleep.

I remember our first night in the hospital, my peaceful, sleepy son began screaming as soon as we turned out the lights and laid him in his bassinet.  After picking him back up and nursing him again and repeating the process of crying and screaming I remember telling my husband, “Oh my God, I think he is afraid of the dark! Turn on all the lights!”

This of course did not fix our sleep problem but was the opening statement in a two year long journey that consisted of me doing everything you weren’t suppose to do. Continue reading

What Breastfeeding Taught Me About Motherhood

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Here’s Why You Need To Slow Down As A Mother

When I first became a mom, I was exhausted. I remember sitting on the couch all day just trying to survive to when my husband would come home. Sometimes I would even call him while he was still driving home and beg him to take me out to dinner.

We would pack up the baby and out the door we would go. I still remember sitting in Applebee’s, down the street from my home, nursing a baby while trying to eat a steak dinner that my husband had to cut up for me and drinking a glass of red win.

Inevitably, I would always end up next to a whole bunch of old ladies glaring at me and whispering around what a terrible mother I was drinking and nursing.  Back then, I didn’t care, I was just so happy to see a different place that wasn’t the same four walls.Continue reading

How To Understand & Appreciate The Different Styles Of Motherhood

There are many different kinds of moms.

There are the working moms and the stay at home moms course.  But within that there is the attachment parenting mom, the boy mom, the girl mom, the co-sleeping mom, the formula fed mom, the breast-feeding mom,  the exercise mom, the activities mom and the list could keep on going.

This is a great thing, because through this we realize there isn’t one size fit all or that there isn’t one example of what the ‘perfect’ mom is.

Yet, often what I see happening in motherhood is the comparing of mothering styles.  Everyone seems to think there is one way to be the perfect mom.Continue reading