This I Believe

This is what I submitted to NPR's "This I Believe":

I believe that motherhood is so much harder than you can understand until you become a mother for the first time. No amount of babysitting or other experience prepares you for the real thing. I believe that hormones push us to reproduce. The same hormones later make us forget how difficult it all was, particularly at the beginning. Years later, all the older generation remembers is how easy and rewarding it all was. Of course being a parent is the most rewarding thing I ever expect to experience – seeing your child smile for the first time, start laughing, learn to sit, crawl and walk. How I enjoy hearing my 3 ½ year old son tell me about his day, tell stories, sing, try to teach me what he learned at daycare that day…

I think it’s important to share the beautiful things to look forward to when having children, but more so I believe it’s important to share how difficult it all is at the beginning. Maybe then mothers would share their difficulties more freely, feel less alone, and reach out for more help. And maybe, just maybe, it won’t be quite as difficult.