My thoughts on motherhood OVERsharing.

I’m not a mom, but I relate so much to what you say about doing things that make you happy and having hobbies! That applies whether you have kids, are in a relationship, work a lot, etc! We all need something we are passionate about.

Also, love what you said about seeing how excited kids get and letting that make you excited for the little things too. Feel the same about dogs hahaha.

I got out of the house for my run this morning in 15 min. It was my first morning back running after a break (I was sick and needed to let my body recover). But so glad I took the time off because I felt healthy and ready to run today!

Great post Janae – I appreciate your candor! Having raised 2 kids I can tell you that I think you and Andrew are doing a phenomenal job.

We are going through a once in a lifetime heat wave here in the Northwest – and the vast majority of people have no AC. Yesterday was the first time EVER Sea-Tac Airport hit 100 degrees 2 days in a row and today is supposed to be the hottest day EVER in Western Washington. And we have some fairly high humidity and dew point as well.

We get relief tomorrow when it is only supposed to be 90.

Thank you! Mom guilt is REAL! I experience a lot of guilt about having an only. That was never our plan to have “just” one child. So I/we overcompensate sometimes due to the guilt associated around something that was not in our control. You are correct though…we chose to be parents and God chose that he was going to be our only! Thank you for keeping it real!

I appreciate all that you’ve shared about motherhood, and the limits you’ve put on what you share! I think it’s so great how you respect your kids’ privacy with not sharing all of the lows..I know if my mom shared all my tantrums and hard years I would be mortified!!

I’m definitely a lake person- we just moved to Raleigh a few weeks ago and have been hitting up all of the lakes and are lucky to live about 5 steps to one. It’s so calming to me and I love getting out there on kayaks or paddleboards. My happy place! :)

Thank you so much for sharing! I am 12 weeks pregnant with our first and I am so nervous about juggling everything. We have never met but I have always looked up to you as a mother and a runner. This post made me cry, those pregnancy hormones are no joke!

I *love* your thoughts on motherhood and the lessons you’ve learned, the self-awareness it’s afforded you, and the space it has allowed you to carve out for being there for your kids.

And I want to tell you a bit about my parents. They’re self-made. First in their families to have gone to college (and for my dad, first to have graduated high school). When my parents got married, my mother taught high school English and Latin in an inner-city Toledo, OH high school that was drastically underfunded. While her soul-searching was sparked by different conditions than mine, she went through the same questioning: is being a teacher really serving me as well as it can, given the life I have (immigrant husband who was finishing a PhD in physics and engineering + being the only child to two middle-class, blue-collar Greek American and Greek immigrant parents + being a mother for a toddler and a new baby–me!!!). She decided that her skills would also be used well as an attorney, so while she taught during the day, she went to law school part-time at night and still raised me and my brother. And after we moved to NJ when I was 2, she worked hard to finish law school as quickly as she could given the time she had. And my father worked for a telecommunications company. And after law school, my mother decided that the best way *for her* to raise kids who fought to be their absolute best and who would not let anything or anyone limit them was to always work while raising us. So even when she couldn’t come to a dance recital or a band performance, she worked hard and made sure that my brother and I told her about every single thing we did. And if she couldn’t come to a performance, she made sure that she watched us practice when we were at home and she would cheer us on, big time, then. It was important to her that I grew up to never consider myself a second-class citizen because I was a girl, or because my brother and I had a funny Greek last name (which I have still kept–I love my name!!!), and that she made sure to raise us to always push for better than what we thought was our best, to never rest on our laurels, and to celebrate the great things we accomplished while striving for more so we could keep on learning. My father, in his own more quiet way, taught us the same values and prioritized lessons on working hard, on never letting even the smallest setbacks hold you back, and on leveraging what you had.

Their passion was their drive to push ahead while still being good, solid, honest according to their values, their upbringing, their faith, and their participation in their communities. My mom and my dad raised us to know the value of heard work and to do things the RIGHT way, even if people weren’t watching. Sometimes that would mean that you win, or that you get the job, or that you get the scholarship–and sometimes it would mean that you don’t. And that it is OK, that you learn to deal with it and feel your feelings and push ahead towards the next thing to learn, to strive for, to pursue.

As for lakes rivers and oceans: I live near the Chattahoochee River, which has some nice walking trails. But I am over 4 hours from the ocean. And to me that’s hard! I’m a “water baby” in the sense that I could stare at the water lapping up to shore all day and that salt water is one of the most beautiful scents in the world (but I am not…a swimmer…or a ‘hang out by the beach and sunbathe’ person…). Aside from some of the worries I have related to crime and human rights violations in the area, it’s really what I don’t like about this city!!! (Except at the same time I acknowledge that living by the water is VERY EXPENSIVE–and that the cities I do like and could consider living in are nowhere near the ocean. Boo!!!)

Love this! Thanks so much for sharing. I’m 9 months PP and a new mom. Motherhood has been SO MUCH more than I could of imagined, in all the absolute best ways. I love it, but I really struggle with finding balance with motherhood and “me time”. I have to really push myself to do things for me. I’m almost too aware of how fast time goes and I don’t want to miss a thing with him so as a result I don’t prioritize taking time to do the things I love for me. It’s a struggle! Again thanks for sharing!

Not a mom but I’ve been reading your blog for almost 10 years (I was 19 when I started reading) and you have been a HUGE role model for that entire time period! So much of what you’ve shared feels relatable even though I don’t have kids yet and this is the type of blog post that you share that I know I’ll come back to if I’m lucky enough to become a mother! I know that sharing your thoughts online isn’t always easy but I’m sure glad you do because of posts like this! Thank you Janae!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This was absolutely lovely and will be a post that I save to come back to! Love that you said running makes you love motherhood even more. I like the idea of it being a relationship, not a role. And that it’s not your job to make them happy, but you help sit with them through the hard times and know that it helps them grow. So so true. Plus that it’s your choice. I just love it all so much. Thanks for opening up and being vulnerable and answering my question :) we are going to start “trying” in August, eeek!! Exciting!

Well said! When and if my daughter chooses to be a mom I would never want her to give up her interests and passions. Doing things outside the home definitely makes me a better partner and mother.

I love Sand Hollow, you were down in my neck of the woods!! Weekdays are the best days to go when there aren’t so many people.

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