The mom flap (so dubbed by Crabmommy) gets plenty of hate press in the standard parenting mags. But let's face it - most of us are still hanging onto the flap in all its hideous ungloriousness. Dads - your wives/girlfriends/baby mama's have got a little bit of flubber in the middle that your little bouncing bean left behind. It's the shape of a mother.
I've been hiding the effects of my daughter from the world since she came out. The only ones who've seen my stomach since I left the maternity ward are my OB/GYN and my husband. No amount of crunches or starvation diets can make the skin once again
stretch cleanly across the belly - even one that's got a little too
much fat underneath. Like my daughter's hairbands, it's been stretched
to the point of no return. Three years of sucking it in and layering it up.
When I found the site
created by a California mother and dedicated to all of us out here
with sagging skin and pooching bellies, I was cowed. It's the shape of a mother in all it's unglorious glory. It's saggy and stretchy and poochy and paunchy. It's strained from too many hours spent bending over a pile of Tonka trucks and too much toting a monsterous carseat carrier. It's tired from too many late nights making lunches and too many early morning feedings.
There are curvy behinds and killer scars. There are big baby bellies and tiny postpartum waists. Some of them are sort of scary (do not share with any of the child-free by choice crowd!). Some of them make me want to switch places.
I won't be one of them - I'm still in hiding. But there are women out there who have the guts to bare their bellies and share the shape of a mother. Will you be one of them?
Image: The Shape of a Mother
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