I see you sitting there in your Capri pants and your book. You look after your beautiful kids swimming in the warm water but you sit, uncomfortable with the literal and figurative weight that motherhood has left you with.
Girl, get up, put on a swim suit and get in here. Your kids will remember that you played with them and swam with them. They will remember laying their water chilled little bodies on you as you all soaked in the sun.
I bought a new suit this year, a mixed bikini. I tried on one of those high waisted suits but discovered that less fabric suited me more than trying to cover up the jiggly mom belly. My favorite suit is a string bikini. It’s looking a bit worn, but the confidence this suit gives me is not because it covers my mom belly; in fact it doesn’t. This suit is the fierce sailor girl, the windsurfing, brave beach girl with the long wavy honey blonde locks I had as a young 20 something. It’s her that I slip on, with the suit.
Get out on that paddle board, get in the pool, swim in the lake. But don’t spend you kids childhood missing out. No other mom (or dad) is judging you for the love handles and jiggly bum. They have theirs to worry about. And the dads, they never judge; they appreciate.
You have a date with childhood. With seeing your tanned legs sliding down the water slide in the sun, pretending you are your kid. Go. Mom. It’s worth it.