Thirtysomething

Choosing Joy

I have oodles and oodles to say on my adventures in motherhood so far and I've been composing a post in my head about it. It's still percolating, not ready to be published. But since we all know I was apprehensive about being a mother, I thought I'd share that it's going really well so far. Doesn't hurt that I have an exceptionally well-tempered baby.

The other thing that I've been kicking around in my head is that you can choose for motherhood to be fun. Because let me tell you, if you don't actively choose that, it can be a big drag. The doctor's appointments, the rearranging of your life, the endless, endless cleaning of bottles and bottoms, the laundry, the feedings, the tummy time, the music time, the practicing sitting time, the lugging crap back and forth to day care time. Oh, don't get me wrong: whenever I see Rolo smile or hear him laugh, it makes it's all worthwhile, but that alone doesn't make it all fun. It's very easy to slip into the habit of seeing all the chores, all the work, how much of the work you might be doing versus how much your partner is doing, and it's easy to miss the joy. So I've been kicking around the idea that you need to actively choose joy. Because once you start looking at motherhood as all the work, all the chores, you're already losing the battle. Many parents of older children have said, and I imagine it's true, that having children doesn't get easier or harder, just different as they get older.

So you know, maybe I do get to choose what kind of mother I'll be, or rather, what kind of motherhood I'll have.

Labels: baby, Living, parenting

posted by DJ Heavy D @ 8:20 AM