So anyway, I've been starting to realize that once you become a mom for the first time you get really boring. You don't have time to do things just for you anymore and just running out to do nothing with friends is next to impossible. In addition to that, the only thing you ever find yourself talking about is your child. The first paragraph of this blog entry is proof of that, so is the rest of it. It's almost like you lose your identity a little bit. Either that or you just get a different one. Since having a child, I have turned into a pasty white, dirty, smelly, tired, scatterbrained version of my former self. On the other hand I now credit myself with being able to stretch a buck, with being able to spot danger from a mile away (like an electrical outlet with no cover on it or the chords on blinds that hang to close to the ground and look an awful lot like a noose), and I am also getting really good at making that car engine noise when me and Gavin play with his Hotwheels. Sure those skills don't make me eligible for landing some high powered corporate job, but they sure do make me a better mom.
Speaking of which, Mother's Day is coming up soon. I saw this commercial for 1-800-flowers or something like that and in it they were giving Mother's Day flowers to all these different types of moms. They gave them to new moms, veteran moms, mother's that were expecting, mother's of moms, etc. The one that bothered me a little bit was when they gave one to a woman whose child was her dog. I know some people will hate me for this, but I find it a little bit insulting when people compare their dogs to children. I totally understand that taking care of a dog is very similar to taking care of a child, but it still makes me a little mad. I even have friends that are guilty of this. Friends who compare their dogs to my son. When I talk to them about the hardships of taking care of a baby and they relate it to them taking care of their pet. Once I was confiding in a friend at how hard it is to keep up with Gavin's energy all day long and my friend said she totally understood because her dog was a bundle of energy also... It's enough to make you want to scream. Or when they compare the cost of having children to the cost of having to take care of a dog. In my opinion, there is no comparison. I've never met a person who needed to save up for their dog to go to college. Just like I've never met a person who could just put their kids in the backyard whenever they wanted to pop out and catch a movie. Or take a vacation and just have the neighbors check that their child has a full bowl of water every now and then. That would be so nice. And don't even get me started on the giving birth part and messing up your figure. So please, can we just keep Mother's day to the real moms out there? Maybe they can dedicate a different day to pet owners. They can call it Pet Owners Appreciation Day. Just don't lump us all together because I really hate when my baby gets compared to an animal, no matter how unintentional it is.
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