Sunday, April 6, 2008

Put it on...

So...

I am experience that really exciting part of postpartum life, that love-hate relationship you develop with your body.  On one hand you love it because it has just produced the newest little love of your life. You can to things you never thought you could do like prepare a four-course meal with your feet because you have to hold your newborn and color with your toddle all at the same time. If you are breast feeding, you are amazed that those two pebbles stuck to the front of your chest are now boulders large enough to give Dolly Parton a run for her money. However, there is another side to the positive.  It is this other side that I am going to discuss...

We live in a funny time as far as body image is concerned. Later I will look, more in depth, at the whole weight war in america, but today I will look at a lighter side of mommies fight with the postpartum body, how the heck do we-mommies dress the thing?!  If we-mommies had our way we-mommies would simply hide all our pre-baby clothes so as to remove all feelings of guilt brought on by the fact that we-mommies can no longer fit into those size 2 jeans. We-mommies would then climb into our trusty ol' set of oversized sweats.  In our postpartum minds, this outfit should work for everything.  It is, after all, just a transitional "style" that we-mommies plan to sport for a month or so while getting back to our pre-baby weight.  Let's face it, this plan is neither affective nor attractive.  The primary problem lies in the fact that the outfit of choice, the oversized sweats, makes us-mommies feel very comfortable thus eliminating one of the primary catalysts of change, the feeling of being uncomfortable.  Secondly, what we-mommies don't realize is that the rest of the world only sees our lack of fashion sense and draws their conclusions accordingly.  Few or none will ever say to themselves "Oh, I totally understand why she is dressed like that.  Even though she looks like a sasquatch and I can't tell if she currently weights 300 pounds or 130 pounds, I am sure she just had a baby and is only weeks away from being back to her pre-baby weight." Though we-mommies wish that is how everyone's mind worked, that is not the case.  It is a cruel world out there.

Here is my secret that I am sharing with all my reader-mommies...dress the body you currently have in clothes that fit!  One of the biggest motivations for me is when I see that I am actually a couple sizes bigger than I thought I was.  If you can't squeeze into a size 4, it is a lot harder to make yourself believe you are still a size 2 (which you have been telling yourself even though you-mommy have been too scared to try on those jeans to prove it).  Reality check!  So, you keep your motivation to get back to pre-baby weight.  However, by dressing the body you-mommy have, you-mommy come across as a confident, intelligent individual.  You-mommy will be treated better, you-mommy will feel better, your family, particularly your husband, will thank you-mommy, and all those friends who's invitations you-mommy had to turn down because of the new baby will no longer be embarrassed to be seen with you-mommy!  Suddenly, when world is not such a cruel place...

Today I learned that when you get to your whit's end, all your ideal parenting theories go right out the window...candy before lunch? Sure!

1 comment:

Linz said...

Thanks for the laugh... I am patiently awaiting these days