If you knew me before kids {or even saw me without my kids}, you would probably never believe that I would be a good “girl mom” and I would totally get it. While I like make-up and clothes, I have exactly 2 hairstyles in my repertoire – straight or curly and up or down {See? That could count as 4! I’m moving up in the world}. I own one pair of jeans that have buttons because I have fully embraced yoga pants {yes, I DO actually do yoga in them} and tights. I do have some pre-kid heels although they are sitting in the “To-Be Sold on Facebook Marketplace” pile in my closet and I have worn them zero times out of the house. I have bras. They fit the way they are supposed to and pull droopy things up. But, alas, I am a girl mom AND I think I’m pretty much rocking it {so far}.
I say “so far” because I only have 6 years of “girl mom” status so for those in the teenage years, PLEASE feel free to scoff and laugh this post off, but for everyone else, join me in my journey to embrace the pink that has overtaken my house. Literally, by the way, because both girls have pink rooms, different shades of pink, that they redesigned after rejecting how I decorated their rooms in utero.
Pink Rooms
Yes, both girls’ favorite color is PINK. No, I did not spur this on in any way subconsciously. I picked a lovely dark grey with neutral yellows, greens, and blues for my oldest’s room and a really cool dark blue with some pastels for my youngest’s. Neither kid came out only seeing pink in their room I’m not sure when it changed, but slowly but surely, everything is pink.
Fancy Dresses
You know, in England {via Peppa Pig, of course} “Fancy Dress Parties” are costume parties and while my kids love costumes and dressing up as another character, Fancy Dress Parties mean something else entirely in the Hester Household. My kids love fancy dresses, the fancier the better. Think about the annoying petticoated Easter dress your mom would put you in, and that is what you would get if you saw us at the mechanic getting the oil changed or if we were grocery shopping at HEB. No, I do not mind one bit, because 1) It’s their body. They can wear what they want {within reason. Yes, of course, I really really try to get them to wear they wear jackets when it is 40 degrees outside, and I always insist on tennis shoes and shorts/pants on underneath for playground-ease purposes. Nobody wants to run around on the playground in sparkly pink heels or see a shorts-less bum going down a metal slide, but I also don’t mind if they want to wear a princess dress to sleep in, and it pays me no mind to get to walk Tiana through the grocery store to pick up some milk.
Less Dinosaurs and Roughhousing
There are a few downsides that I have had to get used to as a girl mom. As much as my husband or I would like it, they just aren’t into dinosaurs. My nerdy husband LOVES dinosaurs and Minions, but settles for Barbie and tea parties. They did bond together over The Incredibles movies and we work on female empowerment over the traditional “prince saves the princess” mindset. My oldest wants to be a Princess Dentist Mommy and my youngest a Queen Chef, all of which I am cool with. They also don’t roughhouse as much as my nephews do. They dramatize the slightest “oww” or “hurt” and require 73 “stickers” {character band-aids} to heal it, so I can only imagine the screams/drama that would come of a real wrestling match.
The Love and Cuddles
Bar none, the best thing about being a mom is the LOVE and the cuddles. My girls are both cuddlers and so are we. My husband and I love hugs and my girls love sitting on our laps to watch tv or just hang out. It is our family’s love language. My husband and I fight over who gets to sit with the kids because we love snuggling with them. My {too old for this} oldest sometimes comes in our room and complains “that her whole body hurts”, which we have investigated and if it is a real hurt, it’s probably just muscle pain from an athletically-forward PE class that day, but nonetheless, she requires snuggles and is usually too exhausted to just be told to go back to bed, so I cuddle her {and sass a bit to my husband that I get one more cuddle out of my growing girl}, she falls asleep, and I carry her back to bed. I don’t know if this is a “girl mom” thing; I think it’s just a MOM thing, but it’s an added bonus regardless.
I’m trying hard with the girl mom thing, and as much as Kaitlyn would love me to be like her, I just can’t even fake it. There’s a mom at the preschool {and it really doesn’t even matter if you know which preschool or who it is; I bet you can picture her too} that is literally always in heels, full face makeup, dressed like she stepped out of an Instagram post, with a HUGE smile on her face when she picks her kids up from school. “Mom,” Kaitlyn has said at least once a week since she started at that school 4 years ago, “Why can’t you dress more like {insert child name here}’s Mom?? She’s so pretty!!!” I feel bad when I tell her :: “I literally cannot dress like that. It goes against my DNA, I’m sure.” But, baby girl, if that’s how you want to dress, I will support you and help you however I can.
