Any way that you look at it we do not respect mothers or mothering in our society. We, the mothers, don’t even fully respect the work we’re doing as we do it. How many times have you needed a break that you didn’t ask for because you didn’t want to seem needy or weak?

How many times have you said, “I don’t know why I’m so tired”?

Your name is not Mommy.

Or mom.

Or mama.

Or ma.

Your name is not _______’s mom.

You have a name.

How intimately do you know your voice? When was the last time you were honest about your experience of motherhood? How many people in your life do you feel comfortable speaking your truth to?

If a mother speaks in a house full of family, have they made a sound?

When was the last time that someone took care of you in any way? What would that look like in your life? As mothers caring is our primary function and we show it in so many ways. We take care of scrapes and cuts. We take care of laundry. We take care of dinner. We take care of broken hearts and forgotten book reports and lost shoes and we take care of teaching consent and respecting boundaries and teaching them to love themselves and, and, and...

How claustrophobic is your life? Do you have room to breathe? A place to call your own? Space is a human need and motherhood can make us forget that. But I want to remind you right now that you have a right to take up space. You have a right to space that is only yours.

Privacy

The joke is that you will never pee alone again.

And I get why it's funny. I've been pushed from room to room in search of a space where I can hear my own voice in my head even for just a few seconds only to end up in the bathroom with tiny fingers reaching under the door and nowhere else to run.