Becoming a Mother Blog: 6 Month Reflections

So, in the past 5.5 wonderful, sleep-deprived, crazy, amazing months with my lovely and at times challenging little baby, I feel that I have a somewhat different perspective on the challenges of parenting than I had in my pre-parent life as a parent coach and child and teen psychologist. I say somewhat different because I feel that much of the parenting values that I had developed over the years of working with families remain the same for me. I truly feel that I have tried very hard to honor the fact that even while I have been a “parenting expert” for many years, when it comes to actually being a parent I have known absolutely nothing apart from the theoretical. I do feel that I was well prepared for parenting in the sense that I theoretically was aware of challenges that come up. While I now know that I had no idea of how the challenges would affect me emotionally, I am grateful for the years I have spent with families and parents that have helped shape who I am as a person, therapist, and now parent.

As I mentioned, my perspective on parenting is different because I now know what it is to have my heart living outside my body. I had no idea just how busy a life can be as a new mother. Never have I understood more the urge to protect someone at all costs. Or the urge to just weep with love, a different love than I have ever experienced or even could wrap my head around before. Or the urge to drive myself completely crazy with questions, insecurity, and unknowns.

The unknowns of parenting have been particularly difficult for me. As many readers may know, I refer to myself often as a “recovering perfectionist.” I say “recovering” because I still have many perfectionistic tendencies that I recognize and try hard to work through differently. I’ve learned that beating myself up, feeling that my worth is wrapped in whatever I perceive as success in that moment, or expecting perfection even when I don’t believe in perfection just doesn’t make sense anymore. As I was saying, the unknowns of parenting really challenge me my so-called “recovery.” I feel so much more lately… more raw, more insecure, more love, more uncertain, and that there is so much more to know and understand all the time. I also feel so compelled to be “good at” being a mom or that I am doing the “right” things that it can be tough to recognize what is going well. Plus, there are so many ideas about “right” when it comes to parenting that there really is no benchmark apart from loving your kids and trying to recognize and meet their needs.

For example, I recently had to travel to my hometown in Michigan for the funeral of my beloved grandmother. The decision making process was so much more complicated around this trip than I ever understood pre-parenthood. Do I take the baby? Does my husband come? Do I even need to go? Are we ready to take our son on a possibly germ infested and flu infested trek across the country? How will I handle feeding him if I take him or not (since I exclusively pump his milk, this is always a consideration for us but more complicated with traveling)? How will I pump either way? Most of all… Am I a bad mom for leaving him? Am I a bad mom for taking him on this ridiculously long trip across the country for a 36 hour stay? The list of questions goes on and on. Even though I typically am no longer as concerned with what others think of me as I’ve grown as an adult and professional, a lot of my fear was wrapped up in how others would perceive me. Not just, am I a bad mom, but will others think I am a bad mom? What will people think if he cries on the plane?

For someone who has a tendency to overanalyze (perhaps as a hazard of my profession as a therapist), the amount of time I can spend thinking about my parenting decisions is truly absurd. Some days, I am so deep in the whole of “how do we start him on solids” or “how do we ever figure out why he does/doesn’t sleep” that I could spend hours googling only to find “experts” with all different, and often opposite, opinions. Other days, I feel in my heart that it’s okay. I can research but not drive myself crazy with it. I have this sense of knowing that I am the right parent for my son and that though I will make mistakes, I will be okay, he will be okay, and our little family will be okay. These days are experienced as hopeful and filled with love and gratitude.

While my world has been completely shook up and is still in the process of resettling, I would not trade this for anything. Yes, I am exhausted and overwhelmed in a way that I never imagined. But I am also so much happier and filled with love and purpose. My new goal is to figure out ways that I can take on the challenges of parenting while managing my expectations of myself and my little family. Hopefully that way I can have more hopeful, loving, and grateful days and a few less raw, overanalyzed, anxious days.