For New Mothers

Yesterday, I read a beautiful post by Chantal about all the things we have learned as mothers and what advice would you give yourself (or any new mother)? She has an excellent list there and her commenters have great suggestions, also. That really took me back to the days of New Motherhood. When I was first a mother, at seventeen I was not more than a child myself. There was so much I did not know. Because I was so young, I become a Mama in Overdrive. I was a perfectionist. I had so many unrealistic expectations for myself as a mother, so much to prove not only myself, but the world that expected me to fail because of my circumstances. I allowed myself no room for error.

Thankfully, I have learned a great deal since then. Here are a few I would add to her list, a few things I wish someone had told that misguided girl I had been:

• That you are going to make mistakes, sometimes big ones, but it is okay because you are not Wonder Woman. You're human. You'll grow from them.
• That sometimes you really don't like your kids very much. I mean you love them--but sometimes you just don't like them. And that is OK, too. You will forgive them and they (hopefully) will forgive you. The moment will pass. You'll have the love there to ride it out on.
• That you don't have to have all he latest gadgets and toys. Don't feel bad if you don't have them. Baby won't know the difference, anyway.