Being the mom of a 1-year-old, I have fought through days so challenging I didn’t know I would pull through. For every good day, there have been a handful of rocky ones. Thankfully, I’m working through all of this with the help of a counselor, but the decision to find support wasn’t an easy one.
I was struggling for so long in silence, afraid I was the only mom I knew who found it impossible to fully enjoy motherhood. Thanks to moms who speak out about these difficulties, like Chrissy Teigen, I can rest assured that I am not alone. And according to her recent interview on Refinery29, there is hope at the end of the tunnel.
In this interview, Teigen speaks to her experience as a new mother to almost 1-year-old daughter Luna. And as proven time and again, she is as real as it gets. In fact, there isn’t a single motherhood issue Teigen shies away from. Her responses are relatable, hilarious, and so very moving. When she talks about the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of parenting, you feel like you’re laughing alongside your best mommy friend.
In the article, she tackles the pressures women feel in choosing motherhood.
“I don’t feel like people should be pressured to have children. I’m sure that when you announce that fact to somebody, they’re very quick to be like, ‘Gasp! Why don’t you want kids?'” she says “I don’t think any of us should assume all women’s goals are to have kids. It’s a choice!”
Teigen also confesses her joy in picking her own baby’s nose. However gross this may sound, I’m going to go out on a limb and say most of us can relate! “I took my nail up Luna’s nose and scraped the most epic booger out you can ever imagine. And I put it in a paper towel and I kind of stared at it for a while,” Teigen divulges. “Like you get very excited for being able to clear out your kid’s nose.”
This is too funny (and true)!
But the part that really hit home for me? When Teigen opened up about recently overcoming the dark days of her postpartum depression. Much like her poignant essay in Glamour last month, Teigen vulnerably reveals that she is starting to heal after months of deep struggle. She assures moms everywhere that they’ll eventually arrive at a week when the good days outweigh the bad.
“Just know that there’s a light on the other side. When I was in the midst of everything, I could never imagine myself on the other side of it. Now, I’m able to look at September, October, November, December, and shake my head at how dark and crazy of a period it was,” says Teigen. “Just when you think it’s really really bad, it’s going to get better. So hopefully, if you’re going through something tough you can find some peace in knowing that.”
Teigen feels that motherhood has prepared her for any future challenge; and in the process of learning everything about Luna, she has grown in leaps and bounds as a human. She says:
“No matter how uncomfortable or comfortable you get with a baby, remember that it all changes the next week. If you’re feeling safe now, it’s going to get a little crazier the next week. If you’re feeling crazy now, it’s going to get so much better the next week. It makes you prepared for anything.”
Teigen’s openness is a breath of fresh air for moms like me. As my own biggest critic, it can be so easy to tear myself down whenever I get knocked over by the chaotic, relentless wave that is motherhood. Being a mom is awesome, I can tell you with full confidence. But it is also downright uncomfortable and even terrifying at times. And the more visibility we have around the wholehearted imperfection of celebrity __parents like Chrissy Teigen, the more we can let ourselves off the hook.
The fact is, we need to change how we talk about motherhood, and it starts with conversations like these. I feel incredibly grateful to know there are moms out there who, by their very existence, help me be the best mom I can be. So often, those moms are the kind who allow people to see them authentically. Chrissy Teigen is, hands down, that kind of a mom.