Mother of All Secrets

by Kathleen M. Willett

“Babies just sleep all day! You’ll feel like you’re on vacation!” one of my coworkers had told me before I started my maternity leave.

ha ha ha I don't know if anyone says this but I did kinda think it . . .

I’d made coffee and unloaded the dishwasher. And I hadn’t cried yet today. Did those count as accomplishments?

Yes!! HUGE accomplishments.

as my body didn’t exactly look like it belonged to a gym enthusiast.

Can we STOP body shaming? Like let people in books think their bodies are fine and stop spreading diet culture.

Vanessa had already returned to her practice (albeit part time), and was apparently balancing new motherhood and her professional commitments with grace and ease,

apparently being the key. New mothers (all mothers) HAVE to cut themselves slack.

I felt almost normal. Like myself, but a mom, the two blending together naturally in the way that I had wrongly assumed they would.

and handed Kira the knife,

so her fingerprints are on it (called it)