Motherhood: Expectations vs Realities

My interview this week is with Kelly McBride, a former maternal wellness studio owner and mother of three children ages 23, 20 & 16. In this interview Kelly talks about how she navigated the change in her role of mother as a result of her divorce. This story is so incredibly relatable to all mothers. Becoming a mother is such a change in identity. We enter this with a set of expectations of how things will be, should be or ought to be. Sometimes we get exactly what we want, and then things change. Sometimes we get exactly what we want only to realize it's not what we thought it would be. And sometimes life throws us a real curve ball and nothing looks the way we expected it. This week we will focus on three themes:
1. Being Enough. What exactly does it mean to be enough? Who is defining for us what "enoough" is? What happens when you "fall short" of these ideals.
2. Shame. Let's be real, we've all experienced some form of mother shame. Did you plan for a natural birth and had an epidural? Did you plan to breastfeed and it just didn't work for you? Do you work? Send you child to daycare? Not pick him up until 6pm? Eat takeout more than you'd like to admit. Let your kids have more screen time than you'd like to admit. It's time to stop being your own worst critic.
3. How to learn to set stuff down. Do you feel like the weight of the world is upon your shoulders? I don't mean figuratively. I mean that quite literally. If you have chronic neck, shoulder and upper back tension then you probably need to look at what in your life you need to learn to set down. A client of mine described this feeling like she "took off a suit of armor"? Easier said than done right? I know I need to eat healthy, but having some support actually helps me be successful in doing that. I'll show you how to go bed feeling like a successful mom. ​

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