Mums kick ass.
We don’t necessarily bench press at the gym, or we mightn’t have strong rippling muscles, the kind where we can carry an armchair in one hand and swoosh a kettlebell in the other. We might bawl our eyes out every time we watch the last scene in The Notebook (because we are not made of stone) and we might choose to wear pretty pastel dresses and jewelled shoes.
Does any of this make us the ‘weaker’ sex? As if.
Tell us we’re the weaker sex when we’re putting our bodies through the biggest test of physical endurance imaginable – carrying and giving birth to a human being. Tell us we’re the weaker sex when we’re fiercely guarding our children like lionesses. Tell us we’re the weaker sex when we trudge into work stoically after being up all night with a sick baba.
Strength is less about showy displays of toughness, brawn and physique, more about sacrifice, unconditional love and commitment.
Here are 8 reasons mums are strong AF:
1. One word – toddlers
Yes, we have endured one of the biggest challenges known to humanity – parenting a toddler. We have laughed with them, cried with them and wondered helplessly why they felt the need to feck our mobile phone and remote control in the toilet right after they did a poo. Bravo.
2. We put them first
The second we had our first child, an instinctive realisation arrived and has never left: we are no longer as important as this little scrap of love in our arms, and everything we do from now will be geared towards their happiness.
3. Our strong stomachs
Tell us we’re weak when we’ve successfully controlled the urge to puke in the face of some of the most horrible ‘fluids’ imaginable. Runny poo, baby sick, unidentifiable green sludge that our little angel has decided will look just darling splattered all over our top. And that’s before we’ve even talked about the smells. Oh God the smells.
4. The tiredness
There’s a joke going around that the photo of the last time mums had a good night’s sleep was their last sonogram. And while tongue-in-cheek, it sure ain’t far off from the truth! Colic, teething, broken hearts, flu, diarrhoea, night feeds, and toddlers waking up at silly o’ clock to ‘play’ – we’ve stayed awake through it all, and we have the bags under our eyes to prove it!
5. The judgement
Sometimes it feels like we can’t do right for doing wrong doesn’t it? As soon as we become mums there’s this whole new world of pressure: motherhood pressure, and it can be a minefield of competitiveness and judgement. Is it organic? Are they spending too much time indoors? Is grounding them for a week going to give them a lifetime of spiritual, moral and mental trauma? Yada, yada, yada!
6. Sometimes we have to do it alone
We’re not doing down dads at all, but in some cases there’s no doubt that mums have no choice but to go it alone. Single mums have one of the most difficult jobs in the universe and we tip our hats to them, big time.
7. We work – damn hard!
Whether we’re working our ass off at home as a full-time time or as working mum (who also works her ass off at home might we add!) no one could ever accuse us of being lazy now could they? Sometimes the list of the things we have to do is so long our pen runs out before we get to the end of it. Sigh.
8. We maintain a sense of humour
While we love being mums, we’d be big fat liars if we said it was always plain sailing. ‘Tis a challenging aul gig and no mistake! But a real mark of our strength is our ability to laugh through the tears and keep our sense of humour through it all. Hi-yah!
So once and for all we want that phrase ‘the weaker sex’ outlawed – for good! Mums are quite clearly the most kick-ass, strong, enduring superheroes EVER, and we have nothing but admiration for every single one of us!
