What It’s Really Like to Be a Mom of Little Ones

What It's REALLY Like to be a Mom of Little Ones // Reflections on Parenting from https://smartkids101.com

Is it okay if I’m honest with you? Ever since I became the parent of 2 darling children, I’ve felt a little like I joined the circus and now spin plates for a living.  Which could be totally cool, but I don’t know the first thing about keeping plates in the air!

 

I find that I have the tendency to — shall we say — NOT extend grace, especially to myself.  Mommy guilt.  Ugh.  My family is most precious to me– I have Charley who has recently turned 4 and Kate who is 1!  (Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)  With each day, I become a little bit stronger, though many days it doesn’t feel like it.

 

I look back to a time this spring, just before Easter.  You can file this story under: “I’m SO glad we’re (mostly) out of this stage” and cross-reference that with TMI.  You’ve been warned!

 

I was getting dressed to go out with the family when I looked down at my nursing tank top and pajama pants that had been my uniform for the past couple of days.  For a second, I considered keeping the nursing tank on under a clean shirt, but suddenly I saw it… my then-6-month-old daughter’s poop stain on my hip.  I had a moment like in The Emperor’s New Groove where Emperor Kuzco is talking with Yzma and notices something green in her teeth…

What It's REALLY Like to be a Mom of Little Ones // Reflections on Parenting from https://smartkids101.com

It. Was. Gross.

 

It was a phase in which we had a LOT of blowout diapers.  At first I chalked it up to my little one outgrowing the size diapers she was in. Then I thought I might need to change her more often.  But I learned that no matter what I tried, it kept happening… sometimes you just have to clean up the poop and carry on.

What It's REALLY Like to be a Mom of Little Ones // Reflections on Parenting from https://smartkids101.comWe are blessed to have lots of family in town, which usually means (at least) two celebrations for every holiday.  We had plans to celebrate Easter with my husband’s family on Saturday.  On our way to their house we stopped by a bridal shop to get Charley fitted for a ring bearer tuxedo.
As I lifted Kate out of her car seat and into the Ergo carrier, I thought I smelled a faint, familiar smell… but being in a bit more of a rush than I should have been, I barreled on.  While my husband got Charley started on measurements and fittings, I sought out an unoccupied dressing room in which to change what I suspected was a poopy diaper.  Little did I know it was probably one of the more massive blowout diapers she has ever had.  So there I was, changing my little girl’s diaper on the floor of a bridal shop where I could hear the oohs and ahhhs of several bridal parties just on the other side of the curtain. Ever have one of those if they only knew moments?  Yep, I was having one.  If they only knew what kind of yuck was happening in here while they try on the most beautiful and expensive dresses of their lives.  Or — one better — If they only knew the surprising things that await them if they soon become mothers?  The juxtaposition was not lost on me.  Sometimes you just have to clean up the poop and carry on.

I changed my daughter’s outfit and we moved along to run one more errand before visiting grandparents.  I let my husband and son run into the store while I, exhausted, stayed in the car with the baby.  And then I heard it… the familiar sound of poop filling a clean diaper.  Again.  So I got her out of her seat to find that I hadn’t contained the poop from the first incident as well as I thought– it was on her car seat and her (once) clean clothes.  Another wardrobe and diaper change. Laundry was done immediately upon entering the grandparents’ house.  Sometimes you just have to clean up the poop and carry on.

 

But this mama ain’t no fool.  The next day — Easter Sunday, remember — I dressed darling Kate in an ordinary onesie and planned to change her into an Easter outfit after we got to church.  Thank goodness I did because what did I find when I lifted her out of her car seat at church?  C’mon, you got this one.  Another blown out diaper. And I just smiled because I had bested her… her cute Easter dress remained unharmed in the trunk.  I calmly changed her nasty diaper and reminded myself that she would start solid foods soon enough… and then all this diaper stuff will change. (Pardon the pun.)

 

I found myself wondering recently if new British royal mama, Kate Middleton, is making this her new mantra… Perhaps we should frame a print and send it her way with a bar of chocolate and the note, “With Love, from All the Mamas of the World.”
So this one goes out to all the other mamas — royal or not — who selflessly wipe little bottoms every day.  Know that I’m right there with you ready to — say it with me now — clean up the poop and carry on.  

About Aubrey Hunt
Before hopping on the crazy ride we call motherhood, I studied engineering and taught math and science to middle and high school students. Now, perhaps like you, I fill my days singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider and praying my preschooler will eat a vegetable — any vegetable!

4 thoughts on “What It’s Really Like to Be a Mom of Little Ones”

  1. Dorothy Giffin says:

    Love it!! I started a bus trip (trains were on strike & planes to expensive) from Mo. to S. Dakota when my son was not yet one year old..Dressed so darling in a little corduroy outfit…you guessed it..we had not gone far when the “blow-out diaper” happened..Not fun on a bus for sure…but like you we “cleaned up the poop and carried on!! “

    1. Aubrey Hunt says:

      Yikes!! Thanks for sharing… It’s comforting knowing I’m part of the story in which women have been “cleaning up the poop and carrying on” for a long time! 🙂

Comments are closed.