Seeing the recent cover of Time Magazine I had an instant sensation in my stomach. You see, people might believe, that the kind of mother who makes other mothers feel inadequate is the skinny, always in-full make-up, high-heels-wearing, career and family juggling mother. For me this is not the case! Sure these mothers are annoying as all get out, but there’s a whole different breed out there: a breed who’s sole purpose in life (I believe) is to make me feel inadequate! I call them the baby-wearers!

In Time Magazine, they’ve given us a double whammy, with a baby-wearer, who also happens to be a skinny 26-year-old with perky breasts! Thank you Time Magazine – THANK YOU!

If you haven’t already come across a baby-wearer, then let me paint you a picture:
She feeds her children solely homemade organic baby food, from vegetables she has most likely sowed and reaped herself. She breastfeeds her child until he or she is in grade school, she will daily create a wide range of homemade crafts, she would never let her children watch TV (she probably wouldn’t even own one), she home-schools, she practices co-sleeping and she wears her babies in earthy homemade baby-slings.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of this per se, but how on earth am I supposed to live up to that!? I’m too busy being a mother!

Sure if I had twice as many hours in a day, and needed half the amount of sleep, I would milk my own goat and make homemade goats milk yogurt for my children! And I would never even think to turn on the TV, because I would have endless amounts of energy to play and do crafts.

In reality though, I’m purely a mortal. I simply try to live up to my own best, and most days, I actually think I do a pretty good job…..

I make sure my children eat healthy foods, but the baby food will most likely be the pre-made organic kind. Drawing, with perhaps a few stickers thrown in the mix, is as crafty as it gets around here – I honestly don’t even want to imagine the horror my kids could get out of paper-mache! I attempted to put my oldest daughter in a baby-sling when she was little, admittedly mostly to look all cool and earthy, but I was so awkward with it, and she kept sliding out, so I use a Baby Bjorn, even though it doesn’t look as cool! I play with my children, I read to my children, and I laugh with my children – but I will also turn on the TV at least once a day! I tuck my children in at night, in their own beds. We are all happy – and I am quite exhausted!

I think it is time for me to stop feeling like I have to live up to others – especially such annoying overachievers! I’m rebelling against myself and my feeling of inadequacy. It’s time to be proud of what I do do every day, instead of feeling inadequate for what I don’t do! It’s time to be happy with my unique me, mothering my unique children, in my unique way!

Now let’s see if I can keep up the momentum next time some baby-wearer tells me how she just filled the freezer with homemade gluten-free baby-food and finished her daily yoga routine, all whilst her two-year-old was nursing throughout a downward-dog pose! – Might I still have a  slight feeling of under achievement?