One of the biggest challenges of motherhood can be trying to avoid comparing your experiences with others. No two kids are alike and neither are any birthing, feeding or parenting journeys. One mom’s viral post that there’s no trophy for parenthood is a helpful reminder all moms should read.
Mom of three Ashley Gibson recently shared the wise words her husband spoke when she was preparing to give birth to their third baby. “‘There’s no trophy Ashley’ The best 4 words my husband could have said to me in that delivery room. It put my whole world as a Mom into perspective,” Gibson shared in a Love What Matters post on Facebook which has since gone viral.
When Gibson later worried about supplementing breastmilk with formula, her husband repeated the same comforting words. “When I was fretting about supplementing with some formula those first few days and not wanting to feel like I was already failing at breastfeeding I heard those words again, ‘There’s no trophy Ashley.’”
That’s when it hit her, “As moms in today’s world it can feel like we’re all competing for a trophy that doesn’t exist. I literally thought in that delivery room that I would somehow be ‘less than’ as mother for tapping out and asking for the drugs. Like there would be a gold medal or AT LEAST a gold sticker on my medical chart for having a natural birth. And I felt like I was letting some invisible committee down when we bought formula to help him pass the amniotic fluid he had swallowed,” she continues in her moving post.
Its an important reminder to all moms, both new and seasoned, that there’s no competition and no judge in this crazy game of motherhood so we should all stop putting so much pressure on ourselves to meet some nonexistent standard. “The only trophy you’ll carry through life is the bond you create with your baby. And like I’ve said before, we all go home from the hospital with a big basket of mesh undies and sanitary pads the size of our newborns no matter how glamorous our Insta pics look,” Gibson concludes.
—Shahrzad Warkentin
Featured photo: Courtesy of Kayla Mattox Photography
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