Ah, swimsuit season: The season that puts a cringe on your face faster than the thought of another long, hard winter!
I’m not a huge fan of swimming, but I do try to have a suit on hand for kayaking, bringing the kids to the beach, and the few-and-far-between stays at a hotel waterpark.
It was the last example that caught me off guard recently.
It was a Mama Meltdown day. An epic, Richard-Sherman-without-the-football-or-testosterone-overload kind of a freakout. And, as if from a distance, I could hear myself literally screaming at my children to stop, just stop. But instead, my 2-year-old continued screaming and my 4-year-old looked at me with desolation in her eyes and burst into tears, and I couldn’t help but follow suit. As I stopped the car on the side of the road and soothed them and told my oldest child Of course, Mommy was just frustrated and didn’t mean to make you sad, but no one likes to be yelled at, do they?
"Mom, what are those lines on your tummy?" I paused slightly at my daughter's words, knowing my reaction in this moment was important.
"Oh, those? Those are called stretchmarks, honey."
And as I finished changing my shirt (without flinching, without attempting to hide those scars), I explained about pregnancy and round tummies and how my stretchmarks remind me of the beautiful time she and her brother spent in my tummy.
Stretchmarks are beautiful.
