Motherhood and Learning to See

Most women go through profound personal change when they become mothers. Whether you give birth, adopt, breastfeed or not something in our brains clicks into the mode responsible for really seeing the world outside ourselves. Someone else has become more important. We have a higher calling.

Once the narcissism of youth fades a bit, you achieve clarity, such as you’ve never had. Gradually, you become aware of what is important and what is not. This isn’t to say that you won’t slip back into the bliss of your own needs. It is important to try on sixty pairs of shoes at DSW. It is imperative that you ogle the racks at Nordstrom’s. Have you seen the new cardis at Old Navy? But I digress. We were talking about selflessness and higher callings.

Clarity helps when you have to decide whether another day at the park is more important than a quiet afternoon at home or whether Little Miss needs a nap more than she needs to be at a birthday party for a two-year-old. It is knowing that very little of life’s minutiae will matter in ten years and also why it is important to stay up past bedtime to hang out with a visiting Grandpa.

Someone once asked me what the most incredible thing to happen to me was since my youth besides getting married and having children. My immediate answer was maturity. It is liberating to dispense of the concerns of adolescence and even young adulthood. The serenity of feeling comfortable in one’s own skin is a welcome break from what it feels like to be a teenager. When you become a mother, the natural progression of maturity is pushed along. Life isn’t all forward progress, of course, and you will still throw yourself onto the bed and sob or occasionally have a hissy fit. Maturity doesn’t prevent us from acting like babies all the time, but combined with motherhood’s gift of living some of life outside of ourselves, you will be able to forgive yourself. When you can forgive yourself your human transgressions, life is easier and so are the children.

Related posts:

1. The Seasons of Motherhood Much of the country is on the verge of entering...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.