"Mompetition" Memos from the Postpartum Trenches

Moms live to sacrifice for their kids. Different moms sacrifice different ways.

Some sacrifice by birthing 100% naturally. No drugs. Sometimes even no doctor. Some moms sacrifice by working two jobs and leaving the day care the bottles and the formula. Every mom is constantly weighing all her options trying to find what's best for her kids. And even those moms who go over the edge, the moms who lose  it, often they've sacrificed too much and cracked, sacrificed but didn't get the support they needed from those around them.

There's nothing more detrimental to society than competitions in mothering. It is unnatural and harmful. I never really got that till I felt like I lost the competition. I have a new birth story. It's less fun and funny than the first one, but it has just as joyful an ending. But I'll tell you all about it another time.

The point of this post is to remind all moms that once upon a time, perhaps in an imaginary past utopia, we worked together to raise our children. Instead of comparing notes to size up the competition, we compared notes to lift each other up, to fill in each other's gaps in ability or opportunity. Or maybe I'm just thinking of elephant herds and lion prides.