The mom’s tears at the end of the session spent counseling this soon-to-be separating couple were not surprising. Divorce is never easy. We had begun to discuss custody schedules, always a prickly topic. That’s when the dam broke. My empathetic comments about how painful these things are bounced right back. “That’s not it!” the mother unequivocally declared. “What will I do?” she cried, emphasizing the word “do.”
There were so many divorce related changes-to-come that had to be flooding this mom’s mind. But for her the tsunami was the revelation that she was about to be out of a job, at least a few days a week. She had devoted her entire mom life to her kids—carpools and taxi service, homework and school projects, play dates and extra-curricular activities, house care and meal prep. The kids’ lives and needs were her job 24/7. That was about to change. And Mom didn’t have anything else to do, or so she felt. She could not even imagine being without her children, and she was terrified. Who would she be? Her identity was MOM, period. At that moment the stark realization was about her, not her kids.
This plaintive comment, “What will I do?” reminded me of a blog by Leslie Irish Evans recently posted on The Huffington Post, “5 Reasons ‘My Kids Are My Whole Life’ is a Stupid Thing to Say” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-irish-evans/parenting-advice_b_1563444.html?ref=parents&utm_source=made+with+love+and+kisses+&utm_campaign=love+and+kisses&utm_medium=email. The author put forth many sound reasons for a woman not to make her child her whole life. But the last reason, “It sets you up for a big fall,” herein relates. Evans is referring to the time when the children go off to college, and mom no longer needs to be mom 24/7. But what if it happens sooner, like in divorce?
I would like to add three more reasons to Evan’s 5 for cultivating a life now that includes more than all things mom-related. These additional reasons deal not only with the messages we give our children through our life choices, but also with how we position ourselves to live.
6. Children need to know that moms (and dads) wear many different hats. Today’s kids need to see that there are lots of things that mommy does in addition to being a mom, many by choice and some by default. Just like the child is a son, a brother, a cousin, a student, a karate guy, and a baseball player, Mommy does lots of things too. She is a mommy, a wife, a daughter, a lawyer, an artist, and bike rider, and a gardener. Mommy is just one of the many things you do.
7. Mommy likes all the things that she does. So often a parent answers the child’s complaint about Mommy going to work by saying, “I have to work” or “I wish I didn’t have to work.” While that may be the case for some, many moms actually like their work. Working in addition to her work as a mom is a choice, and the child needs to know that reality. What a good idea it is to raise children to look forward to their grown-up work, seeing it modeled as a get to and not a have to. The same goes for making the choice to go work-out or take a knitting class and leave the kids at home. Mom has lots of things that she likes and chooses to do in addition to being a mom.
8. Cultivate the YOU who isn’t a mom. While it is easy to mold your life around your kids and their friends’ families, take pains to have a non-mom social life and do non-mom things. Maintain your BC (before children) and non-mom related friends—from work, from your past, from your own interests. Take that class, cultivate that hobby that always interested you. These people and interests will remind you of your identity separate from mom and will remain long after your 24/7 mommy hat gets put higher on the shelf.
My client could not answer my question, “What do you do for yourself?” Don’t let that be you.
I absolutely love this blog. As a working mom who enjoys reading, baking, working out, writing, date nights with my husband, spending time with friends and other hobbies, I am glad to finally hear someone acknowledge that my three kids do not always have to be my primary focus. I love the time I spend with my kids, but I think that I am a better and healthier mom because I choose to engage in a variety of non-mom activities. There is a lot of pressure in society today to make kids the center of our lives. Thanks for validating my decision to balance my kids’ needs with my own needs and desires.
I so remember feeling that way when I got divorced. Fortunately I have so much more in my life now. Kids will be #1 but I have other interests.
Hmm. As a working mom who “has to go to work” to put a roof over our heads and food on the table, I’m not sure I agree that now, when my children are small and living under that “roof” is when I should break up what little “non-work” time I have to take that cooking class or have that lunch with a BC friend with whom, if I’m really honest, I have so little in common these days. I am fully aware that this amount of time I get to spend with my children will come to an end, and it’s probably just around the corner when they are under my roof, but don’t want me anywhere near them! Just as I did so much in my 20s and early 30s that I cannot do today, I want to do those things today that I cannot do when my children no longer want me around. And to have a divorce cut into that time with my children, time I wasn’t planning to cut in half, would probably crush me too. Maybe it’s not that she hasn’t thought to nurture her own interests but she has nurtured exactly what she wanted to do and now a divorce that she did not plan on is taking away her opportunity to do the one thing she really wants to do at this phase in her life? I agree that Mommy can’t be “all work and all Mommy”, but I tire of society insisting that I work AND have this full life outside of my children. And for those of us who work because we have to and feel sad leaving our children in the care of others to go to work, why is it so wrong to spend the rest of our non-working time making being a mom a priority? There’s always time to pick up golf or knitting in my 50s!
I am glad that this blog speaks to you. I think balance is the key word here.
How true it is that each of us sees through our own eyes!
I do not disagree with anything you said (except for the query about my client. She genuinely felt she had nothing else to do). My blog is meant to give permission to develop other parts of oneself and to offer many reasons to do so. Working in addition to one’s work as a mom makes for a very full plate. And I am sure you cherish every moment with your children. It sounds like you are doing a good job of not listening to what “society” is telling you to do.