Much as I have never spent too much time worrying about my body or hating it in any way, there is no denying that it now, having had two babies, looks a little different to what it once did.
And that I do sometimes mourn what I once had a little.
Don't get me wrong, I do love my body. It is strong and healthy and has carried and grown and birthed and fed two babies – in fact, I now have a respect for it that I prior to motherhood never really had. But it is most definitively a little softer around the edges. There are a roundness to my belly that will probably forever more stay that way – no six-pack here, people. A handful of white stretch marks criss cross the lower part of my belly – all courtesy of my 10 lbs 1 oz boy, I think.
Most of the time, I don't mind at all – I still feel happy with my lot and confident in that I look just fine. Not perfect, not model-like in any way, but fine. Happy. Healthy. And that's what matters, no? But then summer rolls around and it becomes time again to put on a bikini, and just like that I find myself in front of a mirror wishing I had spent more time at the gym. Eaten lesss. Ran more. Sucking in my belly as I watch my own complexion and for a moment dreaming about the way I looked before I had my babies – much as I probably didn't appreciate what I had back then at all.
And then I came across this Facebook post featuring American mum Laura Mazza who published an open post about what her husband replied when she, standing in front of the mirror one day, had told him how 'this was not the body he fell in love with.'
It's not a new post but it resonated with so much that we feel it's important to share it with you.
His reply? It will make you weep:
This is Laura's text in full:
