Mom brain. We've all heard the term, we've probably all used the phrase, and if you think you haven't ever had Mom brain, then your mom brain just forgot about it. It's the blanket mom excuse no one is allowed to argue with. Made two cups of coffee this morning and can't find either the one of them? Mom brain. Switched your husband's cous cous salad for your daughter's Nutella and PB sandwich and sent them on their way? Mom brain. Wore your slippers to the grocery store? Mom brain. Can't remember if you're 35 or 36? Mom brain. In an instant I lost a whole year because I could've sworn I was still 35. Changed your top half, but not your bottom half and walked up to drop off a kid at school in polar bear PJ pants? Mom brain. Found your cell phone in the pantry by the kids' snacks? (Literally yesterday) Mom brain. I don't know how I ever knew where my phone was before I had an Apple Watch. Now it's a game my girls play- follow the ding and see who can find Mama's phone first.
That Mom brain sneaks up on you in pregnancy and peaks every time a kid is born and you're running on fumes from round the clock feedings. When you're pregnant you pass it off as being tired or hormonal. Sure it's not that weird that you took your groceries from the trunk and then left the trunk open all night. Could happen to anyone. Anyone with mom brain.
Sometimes you feel like you're living in a fog and no matter how hard you try to focus on the conversation or task at hand you just cannot fully comprehend what is going on around you. They say that driving exhausted is the same as driving drunk. Then I guess all mothers should have their licenses revoked. No joke, sometimes I would get home, but have no memory of the actual drive. Mom brain is a state of being that comes after exhausted, overwhelmed, and covered in your child(ren)'s bodily fluids.
The other day I found some old college papers I had written. Dang that girl was smart! She knew how to use all kinds of big words. Now the biggest word I use in my daily vocabulary is hippopotamus. She was connected to current events and could hold her own when political topics came up in conversation and things got a little heated. Now the only news I'm caught up on is from the PTO at my kid's elementary school.
I haven't had the brain capacity to work since kid #2. In my defense she was born with complications and my first kid was chronically sick with her own respiratory issues. So it has always been a whole lot of stress and not a lot of sleep. I don't handle my kids being sick very well at all and I don't think I ever will. People always annoyingly tell you when you're pregnant, "Better sleep now, because you won't sleep once the baby is here!" Such annoying advice. When I'm pregnant, my sciatic keeps me from being able to roll over without crying out in pain, and I literally can't breathe if I lay on my back. The no sleep ship sailed long ago. That's all they'd warn you about- not sleeping. No one ever said the worst part is watching your kids when they're sick and how it breaks your mom heart.
Now that we have four girls it takes about three weeks for a sickness to leave our home. It passes through each kid and my husband. So one by one I take care of each of them, losing sleep and sanity and spending way too much time at the doctor, and then I get a week off before something new enters the brood. Illness disrupts all the routines, keeps us cooped up inside, eliminates any chance of time alone, zaps all hope of a full night of sleep, and makes time go at a snails pace. How on earth are you working moms doing it? I can hardly spell my name right let alone run a budget meeting. Shout out to all the working moms who are taking care of kids and taking care of business. I can't even handle being a classroom parent at this point in my kids' lives. Major respect to all you working mothers. Maybe someday when the mom brain fog fades, the sleep returns, and the youngest has built up her immunity, I'll go back to teaching and using big words like onomatopoeia instead of hippopotamus.
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