How Baby

One of the things that really blew my mind about those first few months as a new parent was how completely unprepared I was for the steep learning curve. Sure, people told me I would be tired, but it was always said with a bit of a chuckle, right? Oh gosh, being a new parent sure is hard, but it sure is great, too! Right?

And then Momo came and knocked me right on my butt. How could no one have told me?!

As my brain starts to conveniently gloss over that time in my life (jerkbrain wants more children, jerkbrain can just sit back down), I realize that it’s not that people were keeping it some grand secret. Honestly, there’s just so much Momo to keep track of these days that I can’t even articulate what those first months were like, in comparison. It’s all been smoothed away into a pleasant haze, like something that happened to someone else.

And then there’s also this taboo about talking about the not-so-great parts of becoming a mom, particularly to people who are pregnant already. So when someone asks me about it, do I give them the expected platitude, or do they want the more nuanced personal experience? Usually, it’s the platitude, but those little whatevers add up to this avalanche of ‘motherhood is great, dissent is highly discouraged’ and it gets harder to talk about that kind of stuff at all. Am I speaking to a supportive person, or am I speaking to someone who’s going to get all high and mighty about how easy they had it? You never know.

So it’s fine. Just fine.

Guest starring in this comic are my patrons Tessa and Katie (yes, those are Trill markings!) Thanks, you two. 🙂