When I worked full time, I was always very conscious of how others viewed me. I worked in a field where I wore suits almost every day. My clients and the people I worked with expected it, tho I have never been much of a clotheshorse and really hate wearing suits.
My sister usually came shopping with me because my taste in clothing leans towards overalls and jeans. Sis has *excellent* taste and can really put an outfit together. She gets that from my mom, but I guess that gene skipped me.
When I was on college and high school I pretty much didn't care how people looked at me. My 'uniform' at the time consisted of Birkenstocks, long flowy skirts and lots of flower prints. I was BoHo before BoHo was cool.
Anyways, I went from hippie chick to corporate suit when I started working. Then I got PG with Little Man. My new style was born along with him: jeans and a T-shirt every day, to be mixed with jean shorts and a T-shirt when it was hot. That's the mommy uniform.
The other day I was complaining to a friend that I was tired of wearing the same old thing every day, and you could tell just by looking at me that I was a mom. My T-shirts always have the ghosts of stains on them even when they are clean because little boys usually have sticky paws they want to put all over you. All the jeans in my drawers have smudges of who-knows-what that won't wash out. I wear the same old pair of beat up white sneakers 365 days a year.
Sometimes I'll be out with the boys and see another mom (usually with older kids), who's much more put together than I am. They're usually wearing cute tops and heeled shoes. Their hair is nicely styled and they actually have lipstick on. I always feel like other people see me and think "SAHM".
When you spend all day with little kids, you don't get much feedback on how stylish you're looking. It can be quite difficult to feel good about how the world views you.
But then something like this happens: I'm doing dishes and Little Man walks up to me with a piece of paper.
"Look Momma," he hands me the paper. "I drew you!" He's beaming with pride and so am I. I think it's a pretty good representation of me. And I realize that it's not so much about how the world views me, as it is about how the people I love see me.
4 comments:
Oh, how sweet. I've never been a SAHM and have always had to sort of pull it together for work - even when I had a baby. There's something to be said for HAVING to put on lipstick because I wouldn't bother otherwise.
I love when kids draw their families. There is nothing cuter!
What a great post! I just saw someone totally put together, dressy with heels, at the park where it very recently rained. And she had the nerve to comment about my kids and getting into the puddles! At least I interacted with my kids, she didn't at all, even at the park. And her youngest was 4, I think. So there's even different levels of SAHMs, I've found, those that are more hands on and those that aren't. Your wardrobe sounds suspiciously like mine!
Shirts without stains, do they make those? I'm another proud wearer of the sahm mommy uniform, only I tend to wear old scrub pants instead of jeans if I'm not actually leaving the house that day (which is four out of five days). Fashion Goddess I am not. I prefer to let the kids hug me with their sticky fingers. You just can't beat a sticky peanut butter kiss.
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