How I Have Changed Since Becoming a Mom

When I was pregnant, everyone would always tell me how having a baby and becoming a mother changes everything. I don’t think that’s true. It does, however, change YOU. It changes your perspective, and on a very personal level that seems like your whole world has changed.

Patience.

I have oodles of it. I never did before. Now, when I have to go into Gwen’s room for the 30th time to soothe her to sleep, it doesn’t irritate me much more than it did the 3rd or 4th time. BC (before children) I would have been fed up with the whole thing the second time, and may have thrown a little tantrum of my own.

Emotions.

I’ve got them all over. I’m literally crying as I write this, and it’s not even the hormones…I don’t think. I don’t want to be that guy..but…

Seriously though…watching any movie where a kid or baby is hurt or scared…it does things to my nerves. They’re on edge. I get freaked out and just keep thinking about Gwen and the things that could happen to her.

What does this even mean? From an evolution standpoint, how is this helpful? Is making me terrified of unrealistic awful scenarios going to make me a better mother? I just don’t know.

Self-sacrificing.

Ok, this one’s easy. I’d definitely throw myself in front of a bus to save this kid. I’d take her pain and put it onto myself if I could. On the other hand, I’m worried that something might happen to me, and it would be a while before someone found her, curled up next to her dead mom like little Simba after the wildebeest stampede. (I also can’t watch that scene anymore.)

These are just a few of the changes I’ve noticed since spawning a child. It’s been challenging, exciting, terrifying and joyful – and yet one of the most incredible transformations I’ve ever experienced.

Even beyond changes in myself, I’ve noticed how others have changed, too. My mother lights up now when she sees her granddaughter. My father-in-law regales stories of Man Biscuit when he was a baby, and I’ve realized just how great of a father he is. Friends who have never shared interest in children are fascinated by her smiles and her stumbling words.

A new world is opening up for me, and I think it’s going to be pretty great.

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