Every new mother will experience a wide range of emotions in a short period just after the birth of their baby. Elation, joy, extreme happiness and more. But there’s one emotion that will lurk just under the surface, pretty much at all times, as well. That’s guilt. New mothers can expect to experience guilt about a new list of things that probably didn’t even create a blip of attention before the baby arrived.
3 Things New Moms Need to Stop Feeling Guilty About
It happens to every one of us. Whether it’s because the baby had to cry the entire time you indulged in a 7 minute shower or because you couldn’t teleport to the baby’s room to pick them up from their nap because you were washing dishes from breakfast so they were left alone, awake and even happily gurgling for a few extra moments. However it happens and perhaps because you might be experiencing ‘higher’ emotions lately, eventually we’ll find ourselves in a moment of peace and quiet wondering if we’re just the worst Mom ever. A good mother would have…. a great mother would never…. ahhhh phooey. Look, there’s no such thing as perfect, you’re likely not even close to the worse mother ever and let’s just talk about the three things you need to stop feeling guilty about as a new Mom.
TV Babysitting
Don’t. Just don’t. Unless you’re plopping baby down in front of the TV for hours at a time, you have no reason to feel guilty. Sure, your grandmother never did that with her children, but hey, your grandmother’s TV didn’t play non-stop, wildly entertaining (and educational) cartoons, 24 hours a day, either. Most newborns probably can’t be drawn in and locked up by Bonanza anyway. If you need some time to yourself to shower, to poop, to THINK….. setting baby up comfortably in front of the TV for a round of Blue’s Clues is nothing to feel guilty about.
Internetting Your Shopping Lists
Again, sort of the same here as with grandma’s Bonanza playing TV, don’t feel guilty about what technology allows new mothers in this day and age. Feel elated, feel lucky, feel a little bit lazy if you like, but don’t feel guilty and don’t press yourself to gather up the kids once a week and juggle them around a local grocery store when you can easily (you have the page saved on your computer..) just order all that junk online. Have a grocery delivery service in your area? Yeah? Don’t feel guilty about that too. *either* But when I was a new mother, we walked uphill to the grocery store, with our twins hanging off our face in a duo-carrier, with no cart and in 12 foot of snow! Stuff it, Grandma, we don’t have to do that anymore.
Where Baby Eats
Babies really don’t always work on some sort of schedule. So quit guiltily chiding yourself about having to feed your baby in the back seat really quick before you go in the gas station. It happens. We don’t have any requirements for where we have to eat. We all eat, all our lives, anywhere and everywhere. You’re not warping or scarring your baby by feeding them in any particular place. Breastfeeding? You feed your baby wherever your baby gets hungry, too. Seriously.
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