How do you see yourself?
How do you hope your daughter sees herself?
How do you hope your son sees other women?

Our children are like sponges, absorbing absolutely everything they see and hear.

But let's be honest.. like a sponge they also overflow and drip. My guess is they drip out all the "please don't do that" we have to ask a million times and sweet behavior, right?
I want my daughter to see herself as the beautiful little being that she is.
To embrace all of her little quirks.
To be herself.
To love herself.

But can I really say the same for myself?
Not entirely. 

After I had Brynlee it was followed with months of self hate and having no confidence in myself or my body. Constantly words out of my mouth were "I'm so fat." "I feel gross/ ugly." "I look disgusting." Even though my loving husband always told me to stop and that I was beautiful, I did not believe him. I spent all the time I could at the gym or running around our neighborhood with the jogging stroller trying to get my prebaby body back. Trying to regain confidence.

I got back neither.

**Not to confuse my lack of self confidence with worrying about what others think of me, because that seems to not be a problem. I really don't care if others find me ugly haha.

Also, I find it so crazy I felt so beautiful pregnant, but nooooot so much after.

Women... am I right?

Now, being almost 7 months pregnant sometimes all I think about is how hard it's going to be to get my body back after I have our son. But here is the thing... that prebaby body.. it's gone. Forever.

It's gone because soon it will have birthed 2 beautiful babies in under 2 years.
It's gone because my skin has been stretched with marks to prove it.
It's gone because it has gone through many changes.
It's gone because it's older.

And that's okay...
I try to say with confidence!

It's okay that it is gone. I can be confident in my new body. I'm not looking to be super skinny and I'll be honest, I can't maintain a 6 pack, but my body can be healthy. It can be strong. It can be mine and something I'm proud of.

Not to say that all of a sudden I am and this will be an easy task, because it most definitely will not. This requires plenty of self reminders that I need to be confident in myself.

My daughter will know I'm proud of the woman I am and confident in my skin.
That it's great to embrace all of our differences and that's what makes us beautiful.
Never will she hear me say how ugly I feel or to see the look of self doubt in my eyes.
She will never see or hear that because we both deserve that. We both deserve for me to be confident in myself because in return she will grow into a strong confident woman who loves herself.

I truly can't bare to think about watching my beautiful daughter cry over the fact she doesn't like how she looks or that she thinks she's ugly. And IF I ever have to see that, I'll be damned if it's my fault and she learned those habits from me. And you bet I will beat up whoever made her feel bad about herself. Jerks.

Not only that, but my son will know how to treat a woman and not judge her on looks, but on personality and heart. (And taste in books, obviously.) If I ever find out he is mean to a girl I will beat him up as well. Momma ain't gonna raise no jerk.

Even if you don't have a daughter, your son deserves to know and see that you love yourself.  He needs to know how to love himself as well and how to treat the one he falls in love with. He needs to know it's more than looks, it's confidence, it's self love.

Your kids deserve for you to love youself.
They deserve to know how to love themselves.
You deserve to love yourself.