Embracing Our "Motherhood Badges of Honor"

I've been struggling with continuing this blog -- is it worth my time to comment? So I haven't written in a while... So what finally compelled me to put my thoughts out there today?

Apparently childbearing "ruins" your body -- and so Jillian Michaels, the fitness guru from The Biggest Loser says she will only adopt because:

"I can't handle doing that to my body."

Okay... I really don't want to psychoanalyze this woman, but it seems to me that if you aren't willing to make the "sacrifice" of having your life not be picture perfect in order to bear a child, maybe you should not adopt a child either... But that's not why I wanted to write.

We all know there are plenty of women out there who have gone through childbirth and look just fabulous -- Demi Moore has been very outspoken, the reluctant Julia Roberts finally gave it a go, even the mom of octuplets, Nadya Suleman looks great in a bikini.

Some may have had help surgically (like Patricia Heaton who has not shied from revealing the procedures she has had) or otherwise (when you can afford the personal trainers and chefs -- and have the time -- why not?) but they all have taken the risk and now look ship-shape.

And then there are those of us with what I like to call "Motherhood Badges of Honor." We have imperfect bodies and we don't care. We don't want plastic surgery -- we just throw on some Spanx and we're good to go. Or not.

Motherhood can take its toll on a woman's figure -- but it's all for a great cause, right? Why not just own it? Sure I'm working out and intend to lose some more weight, and hopefully the Pilates will make my tummy look slimmer.

But I know there is a flab of skin that will never go away without surgical intervention -- and I don't care. That pocket of flesh once cradled the head of one of my twins. Totally worth it.

And as a testament to how proud I am of giving birth, and how much I don't car what it did to my body, I post the following picture that shows the Battle Scar Galactica. Ain't it something?

 

 

Motherhood is about sacrifices. If you don't realize that -- don't even bother.

If you agree with me -- and want to post a picture of your own Badge of Honor/Battle Scar to this site, just email a .jpg to lovehateoprah@live.com

Comments

[Tamara Sellman]

When did our culture begin to judge mothers negatively by the shapes of their bodies? I guess it began with corsets. But it's not anything we could have learned from the ancients, who *honored* the soft, round shapes of mothers as sacred and lovely. Now women apologize for having a shape at all.

Women who pass up pregnancy because it messes with their careers are certainly entitled to live their lives on their own terms. So be it. To each her own.

It's just sad that Jillian Michaels will miss out on so much that can't be experienced except through the act of childbirth and, later, the work of parenting. Things that will teach her what she needs to know about herself.

You can have a career and retain your fabulous body post-motherhood. It happens all the time. Just ask Heidi Klum.

For all her tough talk, Michaels is a coward. Which doesn't bode well for her training career. Her decision to forgo pregnancy for her career is an insult to women everywhere, frankly.

[Megan]

Even if she never has children age is inevitable.

I just got linked to this site yesterday.
http://theshapeofamother.com/