Trade them in for limes and make yourself a margarita. That’s right. Who needs lemonade when there are far superior beverages out there?
It’s that time of year where we start worrying about the “S” word. You start to feel like you are just never going to get into it and even if you can, it is going to look horrible. Your kids don’t care. They just want you to hurry up so they can have some fun. They aren’t thinking about the judgement by others (or more likely yourself). It’s been a year, why hasn’t it all gone back to the way it was before?
Have you guessed the word yet?
swimsuit.
The dreaded swimsuit trials and tribulations of a new mother are not to be taken lightly. It’s hard to believe your body just hasn’t gone back to the way it was before. Well, maybe for some of you it has. My guess, is for most of us it hasn’t. Maybe you’ve lost the baby weight or the tummy but now your hips are larger or your chest is smaller. The fact is that I just don’t think it can ever go back to exactly the way it was. This makes us feel bad. We feel like we’ve failed ourselves somehow. We see the stretch marks or the jeans that just don’t fit the same and we try to cover it up. We make comments to our spouses about how we hate the way we look and roll our eyes when they say we are beautiful.
It’s hard to be fit. It’s even more difficult as a parent. When you have an hour to yourself, you just want to do nothing for a little while. You’ve been running around at work or after a child all day. Don’t you deserve to just sit still for a while? I’ve been trying to fight this urge and have been working out recently. Of course, we expect immediate results even though it doesn’t work that way. Naturally, I injured my rotator cuff and can’t do any of the classes I’ve been doing for a while. Thank you lemons. Looks like it’s time for a margarita!
I don’t have any words of wisdom here to make us feel better but I do think it’s important to acknowledge that so many of us feel this way. Our bodies have changed and that is okay. Our lives are fuller for it. Our children couldn’t care less if we feel a little uncomfortable in our swimsuits as long as we get in the water and play with them. So I hope you get in the water and play this summer. I hope you take a look at yourself through your children’s eyes instead of your own from time to time. I hope you do something for you that makes you feel good about yourself. And I hope you take those lemons and trade them in for limes.
Enjoy that margarita.
I struggle with this too. I recently read an article that began with a letter to the writer’s mother that said, “dear Mom, I was seven years old when I found out that you were huge, fat, and horrible.” Kids learn this when we tell them! Thanks for the post, I am working on this.