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Why Didn’t They Tell Me THIS About Motherhood?

Oh motherhood, I had grand plans for you!  I just KNEW I had you all figured out and would be a mother for the history books once I was finally blessed with children.

Looking back I want to laugh out loud at my oh-so naive self!

And I’m not the only mom who thought I had motherhood figured out before it began!

My latest mom poll results had me nodding in agreement as women answered the question, “Why didn’t they tell me THIS about motherhood?!”

1. I rarely feel rested.

I’m pretty sure moms aren’t well rested until the kids go to college!

Most women hit the ground running and don’t sit down much until the kids are in bed. As a mom, I manage to function on much less sleep than I ever imagined!

2. Motherhood will not force me to be more organized.

Not only did I not become more organized with motherhood, I now have tiny people consistently undoing my hard work.

I am learning, though, to go with the flow and know I will miss tripping over toys and seeing crayon filled walls when they are grown.

3. Being a mom doesn’t complete me.

No matter how much you love and cherish your children, motherhood does not and can not completely fill a person.

It can’t satisfy that craving in your soul, because motherhood was never designed to be your everything.

That’s God’s job; to satisfy that gnawing void inside you with His love and peace.

4. There are times I feel like the worst mother in the world.

Some days I’m pretty sure I’m related to the Wicked Witch of the West or any other Disney villain.

There are days I’m pretty sure I’m messing up my children and just pray that they turn out alright despite me.

Insert guilty head hang and deep sigh…….

5. Some parts of your body are never the same after giving birth!

“Things” lose gravity and elasticity after having a baby!

There are parts of me that will never look as though they did before, but it couldn’t be more worth it!

Moms spill their secrets and share what they wish others would have passed down about motherhood. Do these make your top 10 list?

6. As a mother, I need God more than ever!

Becoming a mom has tested my strength, patience, and compassion.

We are called to love and serve like Jesus, yet when a child tantrums again and again, I realize I am unable to be the kind of mom I want to be on my own.

I need God’s help to get me though each day!

7. Motherhood evokes a wide range of emotions, and you can feel them all within 60 seconds.

When I look at my child, I can be consumed with overwhelming love, admiration, and awe of this precious life. Just a few seconds later, that little miracle can make me angry, enraged, and want to shed tears of frustration!

8. I feel every ounce of my child’s pain, and want to fix it, but often can’t.

When they hurt, you hurt too, right mama?  Our instinct is to soothe and make things right, and it’s difficult to stand back and feel powerless.

Yet, God calls us to lay our children, hurts and all, before Him and to remember that He has a plan greater than we see in our humanity.

9. You just never know what will come out of those tiny mouths.

Whether being brutally honest and sparing no feelings {really, I didn’t need the reminder that I have a big wrinkle between my eyes!} or spilling the family secrets, kids have no filter!  Sometimes it’s cause to laugh and remark about their cleverness or sometimes, it’s cause to cringe!

10. It’s a gift to experience life through their eyes.

There’s nothing better than watching their curious minds discover the world around them and learn new concepts!

Alight ladies, which one of these do you identify with the most?

Do you agree with these answers or have your own item you wish someone had told you about motherhood?

41 Comments

  1. I definitely understand #4 as I’m raising tweens right now, but I know I’ve felt them all! Motherhood is a journey for sure! 🙂

  2. Motherhood is wonderful, but so is grandparenting. I still can’t get organized or keep things clean. I keep the two grandsons several days a week. Yesterday I got the bathrooms clean and the floors cleaned until today when one is here and the other on the way. Love it. Great blog and truths.

    1. I bet grandparenting is wonderful! They are such gifts from the Lord!

  3. All of them! And the last of my six kids just graduated from college. You’re post brought a smile of memory to my many years of mothering. Some of your points never stop being part of a mom’s life even after her kids are grown and gone, especially #8. You will always feel your child’s pain and most times you can’t fix it. You can only pray and “be there” for them when they want you to be.

    1. Congrats on surviving it all and I’m sure you must be so proud! What a blessing!

  4. Such great truths – and so real! But we know motherhood is wonderful and hold on to that! And definitely have to draw closer to God – just to “survive” everyday life!!!!!! Great thoughts!

  5. Oh, yes, I was such a wonderful mother in my head before I had children. What I am learning is that I am a wonderful mother now, who sometimes fails at some things, but (especially as an adoptive mother) God didn’t give me the wrong child or her the wrong mother, so I need to focus on what I’m supposed to be learning in those rough spots. And I’m leaning hard on Proverbs 29:18 – that God’s revealing himself to me is evident in my restraint and self-control, Proverbs 15:1 and 2 Cor 3:18 – that as I look on Him I am being changed one degree at a time. And I think about all the wonderful lessons I am learning because in my child, I can see how God must look at me and I get a glimmer of the love He must have for us and how ridiculous we look when we disobey. Parenting has brought me so much closer to God! Great post.

    1. It sounds like God is teaching you and growing you a lot! What a blessing!

  6. You and I are so thinking in the same vein right now! I agree with all of them, but I think #1 and #4 resonate the most with me. It is so funny how before having kids or while pregnant we only hear the rosy stories. Actually, we may hear them all and assume that the bad ones would never happen to us! LOL. Oh the numbers of times that I have to eat my words as a mom about a variety of things. Great Post!

    1. Ha! Yes, I tend to think those less than perfect stories won’t happen to me, but they usually do!

  7. Oh I definitely identify with feeling like the worst mother in the world sometimes. I can’t tell you how many times I have laid awake at night, the tears just streaming down my face as I stew about all the ways I feel like I’m failing my children. I don’t know why it always hits me in the middle of the night, there’s nothing I can do about it then. I generally go round to each of my kids rooms when this happens and apologize to them though they are asleep, praying that the next day I’ll do better. Motherhood is the hardest job I know I’ll ever have.

    1. I completely understand! I’ve done the same and it’s so important to remember there will be bad days, but there is also grace to forgive ourselves. I love the idea of apologizing to the kids. So sweet!

  8. I know I’ve felt all of these as a mom. I think the most important one is how much more we need God! Thanks for sharing this. 🙂 -Jess
    P.S. I tried subscribing but it wouldn’t let me…

    1. I’m so glad you joined the conversation! I will have to check out what is going on with the subscriber form. Thanks for letting me know!

  9. I can so relate! I say that motherhood shows me more than anything how much I need God and how insufficient I am!

    1. Absolutely! Let’s not forget how often I fail and need to ask forgiveness!

  10. Number 9 is very true! My 17 month-old is already saying words, and things like “uh oh” or “down” absolutely floors me. Thank you for this wonderful post!

    1. Isn’t amazing how they pick up things and we have no idea where they heard it?! Crazy and scary!

  11. I would say these are all true, except for part of the first one. “I’m pretty sure moms aren’t well rested until the kids go to college!” I have five kids. The youngest is 16 now. While there are still times I don’t get enough sleep, they are much fewer and further between. In fact, when I don’t get enough sleep, it’s usually my own fault because I stayed up watching Netflix or reading on the internet. There will come a time when you get lots more sleep. Lots more. I promise!

    Until then, good luck!

    Happy Sharefest! I hope you have a lovely weekend.

    1. Oh I am so glad to know that rest is in sight! Ha! And I agree now that my kids are a bit older, often if I am not well rested because of me alone!

  12. Hi there! Found your blog from Life of Faith Link Party. Your post caught my eye because I have an article about the sacredness of motherhood, and I was seeing if we had similar ideas! It’s always great to read feelings you’ve had before, I love your list! Especially #4, #6, and #8!! I totally connect with those! It’s been fun to find your blog, you have a lot of great articles!

    1. Thank you, Britni! I appreciate you stopping by and it’s so funny how we have several of those we completely connect with!

  13. So great! I thought I was a ‘career Woman’…waited 10 years til I realized something was missing…and all my friends knew! So Happy to be a mom of 2 amazing 20something young Men. visiting you from Life Of Faith this week. feel free to visit back http://www.shandraharris.com

    1. Thank you for visiting! I’ll be sure to stop by your place soon!

  14. #6 especially resonated with me! Motherhood has magnified sin issues I never even knew I had. I praise God for His grace that uses parenthood to mold me more into His likeness in so many ways, and for His grace that always promises to be enough. Great post, Sarah Ann! I’m happily sharing it. 🙂

    1. Oh yes! And once we think we’ve conquered a sin issue, there we are, praying for forgiveness and relying on God yet again to get us through.

  15. #6. Mine are older and two have flown the nest. When I speak to other mothers about parenting teens, I say that the taller they grew, the shorter I went … on my knees. When they are young, you still have this illusion that you are somehow in control 🙂 … but when you get ready to begin launching, you come to fully realize that it has always been all. about. God.

    Love your list! What a precious gift to share the “real” mom with other mothers.

    Found you via #CoffeeForYourHeart and so glad I did!

    1. I’ve heard that before and I just might be panicked a bit about the teen years. Prayer is such a gift from God!

  16. This is oh so true! I loved the one about how motherhood does not help you become more organized. When I had just a few kids, I felt completely disorganized and was fine with that. Now with five little boys I feel a tremendous need for more organizational systems, but I simply don’t have the time! lol

    1. Ha! I completely relate! I try to organize and they go behind me and destroy it!

  17. Amen and Amen! IT iS ALL those things and so much more!

  18. So true. Then once they grow up and move out, you feel even more things you never thought you would. My dd just got married last year.

    1. I am so sure! I’m sure you’ll feel even more once she becomes a mom, too. 🙂

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