Bethany C. Meyers Instagram – Saying all this while standing on crutches, unable to walk for the past 18 days, trying to care for a 2-year-old and a 6-month-old in the middle of moving. Mmm… yeah, motherhood hasn’t exactly been my favorite thing lately.
And yet, I still love it.
I often post about the joy motherhood has brought me, and when I do, it’s sometimes met with a counterpoint. Which I get—so many mothers are struggling. Nearly every mom I know needs more support. Society isn’t set up to raise families in the way they were meant to be raised: with a village.
But even with all of that, I still believe motherhood changes you on a soul level—and most of the time, I think it’s for the better. Inside that transformation, there’s joy. Sometimes it’s hard to find. Sometimes it comes and goes. But it’s real. And it often lives in the smallest, simplest moments—playing peek-a-boo with my baby, picking dandelions with my toddler, cuddling in bed with my family. Free. Simple. Potent.
I also think the “miserable mom” narrative is overplayed. No, “mommy needs wine” isn’t what we need to survive. We need paid time off. We need community. We need affordable childcare. We need each other.
In the final weeks of pregnancy with my first child, I was flooded with fear-based messages. I braced myself for the worst. Then, a friend of ours had their baby before we did, and we got on a call with them that changed everything. Yes, they were tired—but they were glowing. They said, “You guys, just wait… this is incredible.”
That little call shifted something in me. And I swear it made my transition into motherhood softer, lighter. Right then and there, I decided I wanted to be that person for someone else. Because the hard parts? People will hear about them. But the good? Sometimes you have to go looking for that.
So I’m here—holding space for the complexity of motherhood. The joy and the struggle. The beauty and the grit. Not in the extremes of toxic positivity or constant martyrdom, but in the real, messy middle. 💕
#HonestMotherhood #SoulfulParenting #MotherhoodUnfiltered #Matrescence #SlowMotherhood | Posted on 21/Apr/2025 22:58:41
