It's Ok Not to Be Ok Mama
All we really want is for someone to relate
Being a parent is both miraculous and rewarding. It is also exceptionally difficult in some moments. We are blessed to be part of a generation that has started sharing the good and the difficult parts of the journey with each other openly because there is power in understanding and being understood. In knowing that we are not alone. Sharing some of my difficulties (especially in my first year postpartum) has been a big part of helping me cope: postpartum baby blues, mom guilt, struggling to be present mom and a present employee, being exhausted all the time, feeling overwhelmed for no particular reason, attempting to reconnect with myself postpartum and finding that the old me was gone, grieving the loss of my old normal and embracing and loving the new one... I could go on. Something about acknowledging what I am going through and hearing other women say "me too" or "I went through it too and this is how I got past it" or "I didn't know that could happen" or "I didn't know that there was a word for it" was both empowering and healing.
We just want to know that we’re not going through this alone, that there are other people out there feeling the same things were feeling, the pain, the sadness, the confusion, the guilt, the overwhelming feeling that we’re in over our head. We just want to know there’s someone else going through the same thing.
In this post I talk about about some of the ways to cope: Success, Like Raising a Baby, Takes a Village (Book Review – “Pressure Cooker – Lessons from a woman at work.”)
Here is a brief video of some mothers talking about their "not ok" moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwXWZbrT7DU