To the Mama Who’s Struggling

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Hello, Mama.

I know you’re scared.

I know you’re tired, you’re overwhelmed, you’re anxious, you’re struggling.

I know on gloomy days you wish you could go outside, even just to pace around the backyard with the kids. On sunny days you wear down the soles of your shoes walking the same path you’ve been walking for over a month now, wishing you were anywhere but here. Boca? Cabo? Anywhere.

To the Mama Who's Struggling | Duluth Moms Blog

I see how your worry is eating away at the lining of your stomach, how you feel like you’re rotting from the inside out. I see the scorch marks on your heart, I see the burns spreading down to your fingertips and laying waste to the landscape of your soul.

There are days where you feel like the best you can do is to put a movie on for the kids and sit in your sweatpants drinking cold coffee and scrolling through Facebook. That’s okay.

There are good days, days when you paint shelves and make play dough and vacuum the living room in your old prom dress. These are the days you let the world see, but they are not every day. 

That’s okay.

It’s okay to not be okay sometimes.

The world is scary right now, Mama.

The foundations we built our lives around feel so unstable now. Dreams and aspirations, plans and hopes, they’re slipping through our fingers. How can we buy a new home after all of this? How can we have another baby? How can we a start or grow a business? How will we recover?

You stay strong for the kids. I know you do. I know you’re trying so hard to hold yourself together when it feels like the very core of you is splintering and shattering. I know you put on a brave face and make french toast and play peekaboo. You put on a cute cardigan over your saggy old nursing tank top and go for a walk and you don’t cry in front of your kids, not even a couple tears, not ever.

To the Mama Who's Struggling | Duluth Moms Blog

But in case no one has told you yet: it’s okay to fall apart just a little bit. It’s okay if you’re struggling a bit each day. When this is all over, I know you’ll put yourself back together even better than before.

For now, though, please give yourself grace. You’re not alone.

I’m rooting for you.