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Everything I'm Sorry For Now That I'm A Mom

by Emily Westbrooks

Being a mom to small children is a relatively short season, so, before you know it, they're doing the laundry for you or carrying their own backpack on a flight. What luxury! However, the early kid years are no joke: they are full and busy and exhaustingly wonderful. Those early mom years are also when you realize there's a whole list of apologies you owe your pre-mom self. Your memories of yourself as a non-mom are still fresh in your mind, so you can actually remember what it was like to only have to pack for yourself before a trip or when you could read more than three pages of a book before falling asleep.

My pre-mom self was not terribly wild or spontaneous, and only becoming a mom made me realize the value in being able to head out on a road trip without packing a hundred diapers and six canisters of formula. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom and most days don't even notice that I've done laundry four times this week and haven't finished a single conversation with a friend in months.

However, there are some days you just need to take a long bath (without rubber ducky) and list out some apologies to your pre-mom self for all those things you didn't appreciate until it was too late.

Sorry For Not Letting The Laundry Pile Up

Because now laundry is my middle name and Oxy-Clean is my weapon of choice. If only I had seen these days coming, I would have let my non-goo-stained clothes stack up for a week without worrying about them!

Sorry For Not Packing Lighter On Trips

Pre-mom self, you should have traveled with a backpack and left all those pairs of shoes at home. You should have gotten on the plane with a book and your phone. You shouldn't have lugged all those bags when you really didn't have to.

Sorry For Not Taking More Trips

Come to think of it, you should have taken more trips, period. And taken advantage of all that packing light much more often.

Sorry For Rushing Through Every Shower

And almost never taking a bath. Long showers and luxurious baths are just not happening these days.

Sorry For Not Being Very Spontaneous

Taking off on a moment's notice and only having to deal with logistics for one? I definitely should have tried that more.

Sorry For Not Spending More Time With Friends

It's so rare now to have a conversation that has a beginning and an end, without 10 stops in the middle to run after a waddling babe or say, "Sorry, what were we saying?"

Sorry For Not Appreciating Time Alone

I spent time alone, sure, but I never appreciated it like I do now. Little did I know that time alone without any kid responsibilities is gold now.

Sorry For Not Playing Hookie More

Because that is the hardest thing to do as a mom, if I'm being honest. There's barely calling in sick, let alone calling in I just don't want to do it today.

Sorry For Not Throwing Myself Into Work More

Said no one ever. Except me, now that I'm a mom and sometimes I wish I had used my entire brain more often and really thrown myself into my work. As a mom it seems I only ever have about 70 percent of my brain to work with on any given day, the rest being taken up with nap schedules and play date plans and all things kid.

Sorry For Not Finishing More Books

Because lately three pages is all I manage before I fall asleep with the light on.

Sorry For Not Having More Sex

Sorry, darling husband, because when I thought I was tired before I became a mom? I had no idea.