Dear mommy bloggers: parenting hasn't made me want to jump off a cliff

I read too many the-sky-is-falling mommy blogs.

I’ve read them since before I even met my husband, something about sharing the most intimate details of a woman’s menstrual cycles, mucous plugs and Myrena experiences just fascinates me. 

I’d read so many horror stories, I jaded myself to the experience. Mommy bloggers (or at least the ones I read) made it seem like parenting destined a person for the loony bin.

And while this isn’t entirely untrue, I guess I’d like to say: it’s not so bad.

True, I don’t have the same freedoms and disposable income as my pre-baby past. And true, waking to a screaming infant three times a night doesn’t exactly make me Hark the Herald Angels.

But I do get a little syrup-y when he grins at me. The boy doesn’t smile at just anything, I have to work at it. So when he does, I complete a mental fist-pump before reaching for a clean diaper wipe.

And although playing Patty-Cake isn’t the most intellectually stimulating two minutes of my day, during that time, I think of playing the game as a child with my parents and also, of all the games we’ll play as he grows. Peek-a-boo? Hide-and-seek? Varsity football? I don’t know, but I anticipate the days.

I’m looking forward to the days of Friday night football and Saturday soccer. Some parents never attend their children’s middle- and high-school athletic appearances. My parents attended, I don’t know, 99 percent? They wanted to. And I want to too.

I won’t emulate every action of Ma and Pa Ryan, but I do plan to silently cheer from the sidelines as my kid scores or goal... be that for his team or the other. And I sooo want to be the mom with the photo-button pin wedged between the zipper of her jacket and the embroidered name of her child’s high school. And I’ll buy hand-sewn gloves in his school colors too. And then I’ll probably accompany him on his first date and job interview. Probably, I hope, maybe, please, insert smiley face with big nose here.

Anyways, after all the reading, I feared parenting would make bottles feel like handcuffs and diaper bags feel like a chain with bowling ball attachment.

It doesn’t. Or at least, it doesn’t have to.

Yes, some moms feel that way and some moms are even diagnosed with serious problems like postpartum depression or other forms of illness. I’m not denying their troubles.

I just want to say that the sky-is-falling mommy mentality doesn’t apply to everyone. Some of us are lucky enough to enjoy it.

But the woman who enjoy 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. feedings, they’re just nut-jobs... :)