Once again I am reminded what a bad, bad mother I am. My poor children -- I shudder to think how much of their adult life and paychecks will be spent on therapy because of me. What is my offense this time? I never regained my figure after giving birth.
Returning to a pre-pregnancy body is the ultimate achievement for the modern mother. I know this to be true because the media told me so. Splashed across international blogs, magazines and newspapers everywhere last week was the headline news that supermodel Heidi Klum had returned to her pre-pregnancy body weight just five weeks after giving birth. I read about it at iVillage, Reality TV News, Growing Your Baby, The Huffington Post and The New York Daily News. I even read about it on TheWashingtonPost.com and CNN.com (via People Magazine). As bad as the news made me feel about myself, I was relieved to see the mainstream finally covering "women's issues."
It's been five years since my last labor and delivery and I'm no MILF, but maybe I can redeem myself. Luckily, there are resources available to me (who says women's healthcare is lacking?) like WebMD which has a post called, "Get Your Body Back After Pregnancy: What Every New Mom Must Know."
Stupid me, I wasted my time when the kids were babes reading the sites for evil mothers—the ones that discuss breastfeeding vs. formula, finding a daycare and returning to work. Alas, I will never hear my husband say the words that Seal, Heidi's husband, shared with Celebritybabies.com about his beautiful wife, who by the way, just took his name:
“She is the person that can pretty much do anything and I’ve got used to that within a few months of marriage…she’s the woman, she can do it all.”
Oh to be a supermodel and a supermom.