You are still You

Congratulations, you are a parent. You've added one more to your familial circle. Now your whole life is diapers, little shirts, cute hats, and pinterest. Right?

Wrong!
Let you be you still.

This is hard to remember at first. There is a huge stigma that once you become a parent, your life is your kids, and for some that may be true, but I honestly don't believe it.  Sure, your kids are important, very. They're our offspring, and it's our job as parents not to let them turn into tyrants and douchebags. We do our best to find cute outfits, and take time to come up with activities. We search high and low for the right formula to feed them, the right bottles to use, orthopedic pacifiers. It's crazy how much money and time we invest in our kids. So much time and money it becomes too easy to forget ourselves. What about the new knitting patterns, the latest James Patterson book, the sweet tattoo you wanted to design?

For 3 years I was victim of this myelf. The first three years of pregnancy and mommyhood. I was consumed with thoughts of how to make my kid active and involved. I lived on Pinterest and the Bump, thrived on my retail job, and fell asleep early. I found little time for my husband and even less for me. I loved video games, nerd/geek culture (yes science and sci-fi), and lived for making websites. While I could still watch some stuff, I found myself looking for new baby shows instead of new anime shows in my free time.

I've slowly begun getting back to my passions. This has helped my creativity and sanity, and social etiquette. Suddenly not every other sentence out of my mouth is about my kid. Just listen to yourself sometime; you used to think those who talk about nothing but their kids got tiring. You'd pray they'd add in a dirty joke or science reference or even something about work. Now you're on the other end, do your friends a favor, talk about something else.

I don't feel as trapped, when I'm home with my kid for hours on end, and I remember the joy of what was and my kid sees it. He sees what genuine fun is. Think of when someone close to you is excited and happy about something they're invested in, your kid sees that when you're talking about something you love. They don't get what they're seeing, but they see you happy and that makes them happy. It's a great example. When they get older, I'll be able to talk about something relevent to my kid other than their own childhood.

Remember, you are not your kid. Your kid is your kid. They will find their own interests on their own. Yes, play with them, be with them, but don't force feed them everything. Who knows, maybe they'll enjoy something you enjoy, and you can be the one to show them the way.

Also, it's very hard when they get older and want to find some gift for you. You can only buy so many ties and jewelry is expensive when you're a kid. I still have issues finding gifts for my dad, his hobby is family but there's only so many picture frames and "Worlds Best __" mugs.