10 Big Things Mom Misses Most About Life Before Children

Motherhood has always been the keystone of a healthy society, and with birthrates falling across the industrialized world, the need for strong mothers has never been larger.

However, modern-day motherhood is also a challenge for women with a career to juggle the mountain of work afterward: school runs, homework, and electives. 

If you ask most mothers what life was like before children, their mothering instincts take over, and they will tell you how complete their children make them. However, many still pine for a moment of being their old selves. 

Online is a great place to find reflections on life before motherhood, and a recent discussion keeps the discussion flowing. Here are some aspects of their old life that some mothers still miss. 

1. Feeding Frenzy

Instantly, it is evident that cooking is one chore some mothers abhor, and even the greatest home chef sometimes struggles to please their offspring. However, not hearing “people complaining about what I cook for dinner” is one mother’s memory of how it used to be. 

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2. Flights of Fancy

One comment reflects what nearly all parents pine for: the ability to drop everything and get that last-minute flight to Cabo or Honolulu for the weekend. Grabbing your passport and traveling “on a whim is so nice.” As a parent, you will not do this again for a long — long — time. 

3. Who Needs to Plan Ahead?

Related to travel is the idea of going with the flow. Having young kids requires CIA-level planning — even a walk to the play park. The days of just deciding on a quick jog before dinner are golden, as are luxuries like meeting besties for coffee without warning. 

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4. The Body

This is a common theme in the discussion, though no surprise considering the physical toll birthing a child takes. Hearing you are “still beautiful the way you are” is no consolation for some moms and can be a source of depression for many. 

5. The Kitchen Sink 

Another mom joined the debate, stating how she still despairs having to bring so many things everywhere she goes. Some moral support comes in the shape of an expression from across the pond: “Everything but the kitchen sink.” The British user then says it would “fit most Mums.” 

6. Sleep When You Are Old

For new parents in particular, the luxury of a full night’s sleep is snatched away so suddenly it can feel like a sentence. Some parents take months to recover from this rude awakening. One kindred spirit agrees with dozens about missing forty winks: “Sleep. Just sleep,” she confesses. “Eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.”

7. Boredom is Underrated

Oh, the days of having nothing to do! My mother raised three sons of a similar age with big personalities and low attention spans. She was never bored. Naturally, all mothers yearn for an afternoon of quiet solace, curling up in the armchair with a trashy book. 

8. Relations…

Some mothers miss having no fear of being loud or even having quality time to do it — but moms miss intimacy in the morning, late at night, or anywhere around the house. Planning the time and day well ahead helps, but it is hardly spontaneous. 

9. Partying

When you think you have seen the best thing about not being a parent, another one comes along. Being young and reckless wasn’t an option for one younger mother, who laments that she “sometimes feels bummed” she didn’t get to have a rebellious streak. 

10. Carefree Thoughts

You know those times as a young adult when you had finished work for the weekend, hit the gym, had a shower, then sunk into the couch without a care? Enjoy them. Once you are responsible for another life, those moments are seldom seen again — though when you do allow yourself a moment: boy, is it good. 

This thread inspired this post. You’ve still got this, mamas.