I remember when my little one just transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap, and one day she woke up at 4:15 am confused. Though she’s sleep trained, I gave her grace to figure out this change so instead of letting her cry it out, I changed her diaper and breastfed her (turns out she was really hungry) and put her back to sleep - drowsy but awake. She’s fell back asleep independently. I then went downstairs and spent the next hour watching her in the baby monitor….. because that’s what moms do, at 5:03am in the morning.
Which then made me think, in the whole birthing process and crash course into motherhood, how often do we give ourselves grace?
Every day is a learning experience and our babies are constantly changing and the demands of life constantly changing yet we tend to give ourselves so much grief for making mistakes or not doing things the right way. If we can give our children grace when they fall and have difficulty adapting to a new schedule or a new change in life why shouldn’t we give our self even more grace for shouldering the momentous and inherently challenging responsibility of being a mother? Why are we hardest on ourselves? I’m not sure if this has to do with grind grind culture or the toxicity of the intersection between motherhood and capitalism but one thing I do know for sure is we as mothers and we need to cut ourselves some slack. We need to prioritize self-care, and the little things and in the big things.
Here’s to giving ourselves more grace in 2022. Grace to figure it all out, and grace when we don’t. Grace to try again, tomorrow and the day after. Grace to simply, be, because that in and of itself, is more than enough.