There are a lot of things you can prepare for prior to having your first child, but the sense of being completely out of it on a somewhat daily basis is NOT one of them.
You may have had your act together before kids.
You used to be a competent and self-aware individual. But something happens to you once kids enter the picture- the more that you begin to devote your attention to another human being, the less attention you devote to yourself.
Motherhood requires intense focus- but not on yourself.
Oh sure, you think you’ve cornered the parenting game when you’re still in the hospital with your brand spanking new infant, but a few nights later, you’re bouncing a wailing baby in one arm at 2am as you google, “can you die from no sleep because I’m pretty sure I’m dying of no sleep” (Just me?).
This permanent state of fatigue leads to results that are often desperately sad, but sometimes comedic.
You’re just trying to survive.
Literally. I can’t even count the number of times I started my Keurig coffee maker… without a cup underneath it to catch the coffee. Or the times I wore mismatched shoes- in public.
Or the times I wore my shirt inside out- again, IN PUBLIC. Because when you’re multi-tasking to the gills and just trying to keep tiny humans alive each day, sometimes your own life awareness is napping on the back burner.
It starts early, too- before baby is even born.
Ever heard of pregnancy brain? Your body is so damn tired from making an actual human being that your mind shifts into some weird, autopilot-like fugue.
You forget where you left your car keys for the fourth goddamn time today. You ransack the house looking for your lost cell phone… that’s in your own hand. You ask your spouse to remind you if you ate dinner, because you can’t remember. And he claims you did, if binge-eating Nutella directly from the jar counts as dinner.
The reality is, once you have kids, -even while still in utero- you will never have your shit fully together again.
You’ll try really hard, but you’ll still have to count on your fingers to remember the last time you showered (too long ago!) and stop counting the days-in-a-row you’ve been wearing the same yoga pants.
But there are those glorious days when everything seems to go right- you have managed to shower AND get dressed -in the same day, no less!- and are even wearing something stylish (aka, “not yoga pants”). You are crushing it, mama! Today is your day!!!
Until, like Lori Farrell, you realize that today is not actually your day.
Mom-to-be Lori Farrell was bringing her A-game in her choice of wardrobe on Friday- or so she thought. After suffering two miscarriages, Farrell is now pregnant with her rainbow baby. A friend had given her a few baby items, & she decided to get all fancified by wearing one of the items: a cool new maternity skirt- or so she thought.
But as her post pointed out, her skirt was not so much a skirt…. as it was a cover to a car seat (given by a friend with damn good style, apparently).
Yup. Lori’s snazzy black and white striped “skirt” was actually an Itzy Ritzy car seat cover.
If you feel like a failure today, just know that I wore a car seat cover a friend gave me because I thought it was a skirt. ????? Itzy Ritzy Confetti Wedding Cake
Posted by Lori Farrell on Friday, February 15, 2019
But in Lori’s defense, the cover retails for $29.99, and it looks damn good on her! Not to mention, the stretch fabric looks nice & comfy for pregnancy. I’d wear it; wouldn’t you?!
Her comment describing the post is what wins it for me:
If you feel like a failure today, just know that I wore a car seat cover a friend gave me because I thought it was a skirt. ?????
What I love about this is that Lori fully admits her wardrobe fail, & uses it to boost the morale of her fellow tired, clueless moms and expectant moms (like you & me!). We’re all in the trenches with her. Life is too damn busy to not laugh about wearing a car seat cover, you know??
Lori’s wardrobe confession post has already earned over 60K shares and 32K comments since being posted a few days ago; moms think it’s hilarious because, let’s face it, we could all see ourselves doing the same.damn.THING.
And not for anything, I think that even after I came to the realization that I was, in fact, wearing an item that was actually intended to be a car seat cover, I’d wear it again, dammit. Because not only is this car seat cover fashionable, it was free (given by a friend) so that’s pretty damn thrifty of Lori, too.
I applaud her ingenuity and her budget-conscious savvy!
We all know that motherhood is hard. Taking the hectic pace of it too seriously only makes it feel even harder, so laughing along the way is vital. And laughing with other mothers who get it makes it even more fun- for all of us!