Your early twenties is a time to be selfish. Educate and grow yourself. Travel and experience things. Make mistakes and made big accomplishments. It's a time of wonder and questions. But when you are a younger mom the age where you were suppose to be selfish you became selfless.
At the young age of twenty two and very newly married I ended up holding that stick with those two little pink lines. Life would need to be adjusted. School? Career? Could I do that still? What about my husband? He has about two years of school left.
We wanted kids. We talked about starting a family sometime after we moved out of state, it just happened a little faster than we planned. I've heard a lot.. A LOT of speeches about getting knocked up too young and how it would mess up my life. But I'm not everyone else. We aren't everyone else and we were going to make this work. Because that is just how we do things around here. *hair flip*
Our life wasn't thrown into the wood chipper after that. Did things have to turn out differently? Absolutely. Those two years of school turned into four, things I wanted to do were put on hold, and we haven't moved out of state yet. It hasn't been messed up, we just took a detour.
Now at the great age of twenty five and twenty six we have two awesome little babies running around our home. My husband will be officially done with school next year and I'm working a home business with my aunt while I take care of our kids. We've adjusted. And I can now confidently say that even though there are some drawbacks to being a younger mom, there are some damn good perks to the job too.
Perk 1- Adjustment to your lifestyle.
We went from broke college students who work way too much and slept way too little to broke parents who work way too much and slept way too little. We were use to chaos and sleep deprivation. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've been sleep deprived since I started working when I was fifteen. Most times if I sleep for more than 5 or 6 hours I'm completely thrown off. I mean like Alan Parish WHAT YEAR IS IT?! type of thrown off.
Lack of sleep, quality time, and alone time were already damn near non existent. So the slide into parenthood exhaustion seemed to be pretty easy. But like I said I don't really know life any other way.
Perk 2- Seeing the world in a different light.
I don't think anything changes the way you view the world until you bring a sweet innocent little soul into it. There is a shift in your life and the world around you. You want to see better, you want to do better, you want them to have better. It makes you realize what you thought you wanted in life and what you really need are very different. The world isn't about you anymore, it's about your family you created. Motherhood has a way of changes us in ways we didn't see coming. And I for one, am grateful to experience it at a younger age.
Perk 3 - Accomplishing things together
My husband may have a crazy schedule between a full time job and school. I may be all over the place with running errands an working from home. And life for us is just crazy sometimes, but we are showing them that no matter what life throws at you - you can do whatever it is you want to do.
Perk 1- Adjustment to your lifestyle.
We went from broke college students who work way too much and slept way too little to broke parents who work way too much and slept way too little. We were use to chaos and sleep deprivation. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've been sleep deprived since I started working when I was fifteen. Most times if I sleep for more than 5 or 6 hours I'm completely thrown off. I mean like Alan Parish WHAT YEAR IS IT?! type of thrown off.
Lack of sleep, quality time, and alone time were already damn near non existent. So the slide into parenthood exhaustion seemed to be pretty easy. But like I said I don't really know life any other way.
Perk 2- Seeing the world in a different light.
I don't think anything changes the way you view the world until you bring a sweet innocent little soul into it. There is a shift in your life and the world around you. You want to see better, you want to do better, you want them to have better. It makes you realize what you thought you wanted in life and what you really need are very different. The world isn't about you anymore, it's about your family you created. Motherhood has a way of changes us in ways we didn't see coming. And I for one, am grateful to experience it at a younger age.
Perk 3 - Accomplishing things together
My husband may have a crazy schedule between a full time job and school. I may be all over the place with running errands an working from home. And life for us is just crazy sometimes, but we are showing them that no matter what life throws at you - you can do whatever it is you want to do.
You can get from here to there ( where ever there might be ) if you just keep going. We didn't have kids and then give up on life. We didn't say oh, I guess this is just what life is now.
And when we get there we get to share these big accomplishments with them. Finishing college, starting at a dream job, moving to a new state, buying a house. We did it together, all four of us. They were apart of it all. They see the struggles and they will see us come out on top.
Perk 4 - You find yourself.
I've lived a crazy life style. All over the place, all the time. I could never find home and I always felt lost. I'm the type of person that just has to be on the move, I'm a wanderer. My husband has been an anchor for me since we met and I did change a lot. But there is something about looking into the eyes of a little human you brought into the world. You just find yourself. You find the piece you didn't know you were looking for. I found myself in motherhood.
I'm a weird all over the place mom that is fueled by coffee and sarcasm. I've found I am actually a sentimental and loving person - although I will forever have uncontrollable sass and attitude. I've found that I'm more than happy to be the mom that I am with crazy colored hair and tattoos. My kids think it's fun and that's all that matter.
I'm sure they will think different when I try to do this stuff in their teen years, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
Perk 5- You're young.
There are many growing pains to becoming a younger mom. No one thinks you know what you are dong and you can face a lot of judgement. Careers and dreams are put on hold. Friendships are lost. But all of those career paths and dreams left hanging and the friendships lost - we can recover and make new. Everyone sitting around that thinks you can't do it - you get to show them you can.
The simple truth to it is that we are young.
We are young. We have kids. We have a whole world right at our feet.
A world you get to walk through hand in hand with your family. A world that you now get to experience not just through your eyes, but your child's.
To all the other younger moms out there - we got this.
Perk 4 - You find yourself.
I've lived a crazy life style. All over the place, all the time. I could never find home and I always felt lost. I'm the type of person that just has to be on the move, I'm a wanderer. My husband has been an anchor for me since we met and I did change a lot. But there is something about looking into the eyes of a little human you brought into the world. You just find yourself. You find the piece you didn't know you were looking for. I found myself in motherhood.
I'm a weird all over the place mom that is fueled by coffee and sarcasm. I've found I am actually a sentimental and loving person - although I will forever have uncontrollable sass and attitude. I've found that I'm more than happy to be the mom that I am with crazy colored hair and tattoos. My kids think it's fun and that's all that matter.
I'm sure they will think different when I try to do this stuff in their teen years, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.
Perk 5- You're young.
There are many growing pains to becoming a younger mom. No one thinks you know what you are dong and you can face a lot of judgement. Careers and dreams are put on hold. Friendships are lost. But all of those career paths and dreams left hanging and the friendships lost - we can recover and make new. Everyone sitting around that thinks you can't do it - you get to show them you can.
The simple truth to it is that we are young.
We are young. We have kids. We have a whole world right at our feet.
A world you get to walk through hand in hand with your family. A world that you now get to experience not just through your eyes, but your child's.
To all the other younger moms out there - we got this.
