Mom’s Credo
I’ve written before that I do not want this site to be a mommy blog, but if you look at my recent infrequent posts, I know that’s what it looks like. I’m not going to apologize, though. It’s just that the mom stuff is very front and center for me now that we have a new baby in addition to a two year old. Their needs are often necessarily in advance of mine, and blogging falls pretty low on Maslow’s hierarchy, though I’m sure Maslow’s list for a mom of a new baby is different from the general one. For instance, need for sleep now trumps need for food, and Maslow doesn’t even mention the need for a shower.
A Mom’s Credo has been banging about in my head like Athena, though, and I think it encapsulates a lot of what this weblog is about, and why I write it:
Be I sleep deprived, covered in spit up, unshowered, and clinging to my last frayed nerve, I will continue to pursue a life of mind. My own needs are physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. I may need to delay my own fulfillment of these needs to meet more immediate ones of my children, but I refuse to forego them.
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For example, I resume this after fetching a crying Guppy after his nap, waking Drake from his nap, and putting on a sling, in which I now nurse the baby while typing one handed.
March 29th, 2006 at 6:17 am
I fully agree regarding having a life of the mind. It is possible with 2 small children (just not easy). I found time to read when breastfeeding, on the loo, when the kids napped, in the car at traffic lights, whatever it took to feed my soul. Never apologise for needing time to yourself, it makes us all better mothers. All the best.
April 5th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
At traffic lights? OK, you got me there. Then again, I don’t drive very much. But I do have reading material stashed around the house, so I am never without. Thanks for the reminder that I don’t need to apologize for needing time to myself. I just wish it didn’t feel like such a tug-of-war some days, as it does today.