Why Mothering Is Hard

Because it is unpredictable.

I was going to take my kids out today.  We were going to have some fun, see a new-to-us bookstore that we'd just discovered the other day . . .I thought maybe we'd pop our heads into some of the little stores downtown that I've never been in.  Have a cup of soup because its coldish outside.

Instead, Number 3 started throwing up in the middle of the night and has been on the couch ALL day long.  Poor thing.  She finally started keeping some fluids down and actually got excited about some pictures of cute animals on my phone but for most of the day she's been absolutely miserable.

Because part of Momming is enforcing.

And it stinks to be the enforcer.  Who wants to make their kid mad?  Who wants to get the death glare from their child?  Nobody.  But that's what Mom's do.  We make them do their homework.  We make them try vegetables.  When the choose to act inappropriately, its our job to correct them.  Not fun.  But a good Mom cares enough to keep her kid from being a monster.

Because there is a lot of stuff to maintain.

We gotta feed these kids, make sure they have clean clothes to wear.  We have to make sure there are clean dishes to eat off of and that there is shampoo and conditioner.  We are the ones who need to make sure that the money stretches as far as it can because the kiddos aren't interested in that.

Because Mothering doesn't automatically come with a huge a cheering section.

Some people might have that . . .but I haven't met any of them.  :)  I personally am working on building my  physically close "village" . . .my support system.  I have a great long distant support system, but I need people close by, too.  Someone to pick my oldest up when the youngers are sick and I can't leave because hubby is out of town.

Your support system, your village . . . that's where you get cheered on, from other people who understand what you are going through and see what you're doing.  But in America that's not an automatic perk of motherhood.  Getting that cheering section is hard work because it requires building authentic relationships ( where you cheer on your friends, too!) and that can be hard for so many different reasons.

But anything worth doing is going to take effort.  And we're not doing this mothering thing because we want Joe Blow from down the street to say "Isn't she a great mom!"

We mother well because we love our children and want the best for them.

So if you are mothering and it feels HARD, remember you are doing REALLY important work.  There'd probably be something rather wrong if it was super easy.  Like maybe you might be raising robot kids that had been swapped for your kids!

Ttyl,

Enjoy the journey!

~ Jennifer