Mom jeans?

A couple weeks ago I read an online discussion regarding "mom jeans."  I read a blog about how to choose jeans that don't make you look like you have "mom butt."  I knew what the ladies were talking about, and agree with their desire to dress attractively,  but I also could not help but be irritated.

Just when did we allow "mom" to become a word used to describe negative things?  Its bad enough we have all the media and all the Hollywood superstars making us feel that we must look 20 years younger than we really are and must look as if we too had the money and time to spend hours a day at the gym while our private chefs were home cooking healthy meals for us, our maids were cleaning our houses and our nannies were caring for our children.  But now we've even allowed them to disparage us and bought into the lie that being a "mom" is frumpy, unfeminine, and unattractive.

At one point, I was overweight by 40 pounds or so.  I joined Weight Watchers and lost it all and I have to continually work at it to keep myself from "letting myself go."  I am not saying we shouldn't care about our appearance and, more importantly, our health and take care of ourselves.

I am saying though that I am not ashamed of being a mother. I am not ashamed that I do not look like a glamorous superstar or a single, professional career woman.   I am a middle-aged mom with 5 children that I have raised or am still raising.  I am a wife to a very busy man who also happens to travel a lot and we move a lot.  I am educating 2 of my children at home while also trying to maintain and care for that home and keep us all fed, in clean clothes and healthy.  I do my best to keep my weight where it should be and dress attractively but quite frankly I do not have the time or means or even desire to look like something I am not.  I resent that my most important role during this time in my life has been relegated to an adjective meaning something undesirable and unattractive.  I am saddened that my peers, other moms struggling just as I am, have bought into it and we are allowing the world to tell us that what we do is so unimportant and undesirable that its now even an adjective meaning something horrible.

So yes, moms, do not "let yourselves go".  Work to stay healthy and attractive. Dress in flattering ways. Take time to do your hair and makeup if you are a makeup kinda gal. Be feminine and stylish.  But please, don't buy into that lie that being a "mom" is a bad thing and synonymous with unattractive.