The shiny, seemingly-perfect lives of many mums appears to flood Instagram these days, but a recent post from a young mum has brought a nice reminder to the forefront of many parents’ minds (and feeds).
American mother and blogger, Shannon Peterson posted a photo of herself breastfeeding on an exercise ball with her unwashed hair swept into a bun, no makeup on and an honest caption explaining she’d been in the photographed position for about three hours.
The post, which touched a cord with thousands of other mothers, created a collective sigh of
relief in the online world of parenting.
“The other day I spent THREE HOURS like this, people. Over 180 minutes. More than ten thousand eight hundred seconds. Bouncing side to side and back and forth, in a very particular pattern,” Peterson, from Portland, wrote in early February.
“The truth is, this is who I am most days. Not a put together human who has her act together. Not a mum who can juggle working from home, kids, etc. I’m just a crazy person trying to maintain some semblance of calm while attempting to figure it all out. Counting down the hours until bedtime and the kids are asleep, and then that first delicious sip of a crisp, cold Gin & Tonic or bold red wine.”
Below is what she posted on Instagram…
Just in case you thought my real life was anything like these tiny squares, I give you: this is 4 months. J has been an incredibly easy baby, from labor to delivery to him being here. But 4 months happened and his needs have grown tenfold. The other day I spent THREE HOURS like this, people. J had to be swaddled, on his back, in my arms. While I was bouncing on my giant exercise ball (never once used for it’s intended purpose). With my boob perfectly resting in just the right spot on his chin. Our house was (is) a mess, my breakfast (lactation smoothie) sitting abandoned behind me, dirty hair and desperately in need of a shower (and 5 minutes without someone touching me) – and at the brink of tears. I mean, I was too lazy to even take the sticker from our movers off the stability ball 🙈 and I’m pretty sure you can see the remnants of my snowflake crafting on the carpet next to the couch I forgot to clean up. The truth is, this is who I am most days. Not a put together human who has her act together. Not a mom who can juggle working from home, kids, etc. I’m just a crazy person trying to maintain some semblance of calm while attempting to figure it all out. Counting down the hours until bedtime and the kids are asleep, and then that first delicious sip of Gin & Tonics or wine. And you better believe I VSCO and heavily edited the you-know-what out of this picture to make it look light and airy and “fit my feed”. Because I’m stuck on the couch under a 4 month old cluster feeding little dude who won’t have anything to do with anyone but me. – Here’s to YOU mama, holding it together even when it gets rough. And even if you’re not, you’re still a part of this club of crazy. Anyone else having a really rough week? – –
Peterson said she doesn’t intentionally leave “the hard days” out of her Instagram feed, but they feature on her social media accounts less regularly because she prefers to focus on the good moments of motherhood.
“I think it’s really easy to forget about the need to share the hard things, because we all want people to know how awesome being a mum/parent can be. But I also think it’s really important to address the not so great stuff so that people know it’s normal,” the young mother wrote.
“Because when I was pregnant, no one talked about it — no one told me about the nitty gritty. They just painted this beautiful picture of what motherhood would look like and how I would feel so full of love and happiness all the time, and that’s not the case at all.
“So here’s to YOU mama, holding it together even when it gets rough. And even if you’re not, you’re still a part of this club of crazy. Because nothing is ever as perfect as we sometimes portray on Instagram, but its refreshing to let the ‘real’ out every once in a while.”
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