How Baby

I think I’ve done a preeeetty good job of not condensing my post-baby identity into ‘______’s Mommy’, which was important to me as someone who came into motherhood already with a host of identities that were already pretty defining. Longtime readers will know that was a big part of early How Baby strips: coming to grips with the way my motherhood affected (and was affected by) being an artist, a gamer, a fangirl, a feminist, etc.

Which is why, when it’s come time to introduce myself to other parents who only know me as “the woman who comes to pick up Momo from daycare”, it’s surreal to watch myself type those words. They don’t need to know, hey, I’m Momo’s mom, though I have reservations regarding referring to myself as such, based on baggage I carry as someone with a complicated relationship to her own identity as a mother, they just want to know if my daughter’s coming to her daughter’s birthday party. Like, hey, get over yourself, right?