PooGrin | Work at home mom blog – WAHM blog

Cry Baby

Posted on 06. Jan, 2010 by CharShaff in The balancing act

Do you shed a tear more often now that you are a mom? I don’t mean because you are frazzled beyond belief, but from being more sensitive?

I have always been pretty tender about things…I cry during the National Anthem, choke up reading greeting cards and bawl my eyes out during “Biggest Loser”.  But now that I am a mom and have given birth, I can’t stop tearing up at the most inane things. A few days ago, I was unloading my cart at Target while Jake was in the carrier facing two ladies waiting behind me. They were smiling and talking to him and he started cooing and smiling back at them. One woman said “Hello, Blue Eyes. My, aren’t you an adorable baby.” I started to get misty-eyed. I turned to them and smiled and said “Thank you.” They continued to say he was cute and laughed as he smiled at them. I was choking up as I heard this. Other people thought my baby was a cutie, just like me. And this is causing me to cry now? I also teared up at a football game when I saw a dad hold his son on his lap and help him cheer.  He tussled his hair and gave him a hug as his son squealed with delight. I couldn’t stop thinking about how cool it was to be a parent and loved to see this tender moment.  These moments should give me a warm feeling, not make me reach for my Kleenex, right?

Now, other than the tender moments, I am also finding my sensitivity towards animals and children who have been abused to go into overload. To the point of not being able to let the thoughts go. When I hear news of someone beating a child or an abduction, my heart sinks and I keep thinking of how traumatized that poor child must be. Reports of animals being abused or neglected just rip me up. Defenseless animals hurt or maimed because of some horrible human. I will sit and think about it for hours and not know how to get the thoughts out of my head. I am still trying to wrap my head around how people in medicine and police/firefighters/CPS can handle each day when they see situations like this. A pediatric doctor friend was telling me about a 2-year old she saw who was paralyzed from her parent’s beatings. She told me about it so nonchalantly. I gasped in horror and couldn’t figure out how she wasn’t just as alarmed as I was. I know its these people’s jobs, but how on earth do you not let that situation play over and over in your head?

All I know, is that I am really much more sensitive as a parent. Its not just in my home life, but in my work too.  I feel like I have to do even better than I did before I had the baby because if I mess up now, it must be because I am trying to juggle a baby and my biz. Which, in some ways is true.  The littlest mistakes can make me cry. I wonder if I really can do it all?

Tags: baby, cry, sensitive