New Mom Chic
This may not apply to all but I would imagine applies to most. I work in a medium size organization so there are quite a few people I will see every few weeks, but not regularly.
Here are how my conversations go now that I’m a mother.
Colleague: “hey, how are you, hows the baby?”
Me: “baby is good, good, gonna be … soon”
Colleague: “that’s great, boy or girl”
Me: “Boy”
Colleague: “he’s in daycare? That must be really hard”
Me: “yeah its not bad, he enjoys it, gives me a break … (ackward smile/shrug)”
Coleague: “still though, must be hard, my wife/husband/partner stayes, stayed, will stay (insert present, past or future tense for age of colleague) home with the baby”
Me: “You are lucky that’s great for you”
Colleague “you look really tired”
Me: “Yeah, hahaha, what are you gonna do, price you pay I guess”
Colleague “is the baby sleeping throug the night? (See previous post)
Me: “Yeah he’s doin pretty well”
Colleague: “good, you do look so tired though”
Me: again ackward shoulder shrug “what are you gonna do right? I call it new mom Chic
Colleague: “well have a good day … wait … what’s on your shirt?”
Me: “umm … I don’t know” checking my shirt half terrified that my boobs have leaked breastmilk all over myself and I haven’t noticed
Colleague: “Looks like banana”
Me: “oh yes, (relieved) was baby’s breakfast”
Colleague: “well have a great day”
Me: “you too!”
And as they walk away I reflect on the conversation I just had to make sure I understand correctly. It’s incredibly hard that I have to pay other people to raise my child while I come to work so that my colleagues can tell me I look like crap because not only do I have hours old food particles on my clothes that I didn’t notice, but apparently the bags under my eyes are so big that they felt the need to tell me not once but twice that I don’t look regular tired, I look really tired.
That’s great! Thank you for that incredibly insightful conversation where you somehow voiced your concern while reminding me that I look like hell. Very helpful, I’ll be sure to get 12 hours of sleep from now on and I’ll try to get dressed after I feed the baby. No problem
I call it new mother chic actually, its a whole new look where you shower every three days, don’t get enough sleep and purposely save food on your clothes for later because you barely have time to eat anyway so why not keep a snack handy.
It’s all the rage in Europe ….
