Why I'm Romanticizing Motherhood and Why You Should Too

It all goes by so fast: the parenting, the adventures, even the mundane. Sometimes, it’s only when we look back that we realize it all looks beautiful.
I decided to put on the rose-colored glasses now, in the present. I’m romanticizing motherhood. Romanticize everything.

Mother and daughter sitting in the woods together.

The days are long, but the years are short.
That’s something I heard over and over.
But what they didn’t tell me was just how short.

I remember when I was little, after my birthday or Christmas, I would think to myself that I would have to wait my entire life for that day to come around again. A year seemed unfathomably long.
Back then, the days were short, and the years were an eternity.

Put on the Rose-Colored Glasses

I was talking to my sister once, and she was caught in the whirlwind of a new relationship, the giddy honeymoon phase. She would call me to tell me every detail of their romantic adventures and long conversations over dinner. It’s so beautiful that we realize the romance in the moment during the honeymoon phase. Why does it feel so hard to do at other times?
I wanted to live there. I decided I was taking up a permanent residence in the honeymoon phase. Life should be that beautiful all the time, in all of life’s seasons. God designed it to be so.
Jesus once told Saint Teresa of Avila, “I would create the universe again just to hear you say that you love me.”
Don’t tell me that the architect of our universe isn’t a romantic.
So here we are, journeying on an adventure, sometimes obviously grand and sometimes rather mundane, but with rose-colored glasses on.
So go forward and create a memorable and present life with your children, date your spouse, cultivate an intimate relationship with our creator, and watch all the sunrises and sunsets that coffee will allow.

Sounds great, but how can we make a purposeful effort to romanticize motherhood and make lasting memories? The way that we perceive life often feels like it is mainly visual, but when was the last time you smelled something familiar, like an old perfume, or a newborn baby’s head, or a dusty old book, or a candle, and were immediately transported back to a moment in time that you hadn’t been to in years. We experience life through our five senses in so many ways that we don’t think about it until it becomes uncomfortable or inconvenient. (No one ever notices that they don’t have a runny nose or a sore throat; you only notice when you have them!) It becomes easier to romanticize motherhood and life in general and to make lasting memories when our senses are alive and awake.

5 Ways You Can Be Romanticizing Motherhood and Making Memories Forever

Sight
Make the world around you beautiful. Life feels more memorable and less stressful to me when there isn’t a mess everywhere in my home. Yes, there will always be laundry to be done and dishes in the sink; that’s part of motherhood. But make sure that your home isn’t visually stressing you out on a daily basis.
Add little things that you love, like fresh flowers on your table, print out unperfect, candid pictures you love and put them on your fridge. Adjust the lighting in your home, try out different light bulbs to create a warmer aesthetic in your living space. Find things that bring you joy and comfort and incorporate them into your home in your own way.
Taste
My favorite. Everything feels more special and intentional with good food. We need food to eat, so of course, there is always food, but making it extra special is a great way to make the moment into a lasting memory. Eat outside; it doesn’t need to be fancy, but eating outside has a special way of feeling like a special occasion, even if you do it all the time; my children get excited every time I suggest it, and when the weather is nice, that means multiple times a day! Have a handful of special treats that are only made or bought for special occasions. For example, my children always get excited about getting to eat Terry’s Chocolate Oranges at Christmas time. I hope that someday, when they’re eating them many years from now, every time they taste them, they’ll be transported right back to Christmas Eve, gathered around the kitchen table, working on a puzzle with their little brother and sisters.
Smell
Put the cookies in the oven, light the scented candle, and brew yourself a cup of coffee. Find a perfume you love and make it your personal signature scent of motherhood. Years from now, you’ll catch a whiff of it, and it will take you right back to the time and place where the best parts of life happened.
Touch
Put on the warm fuzzy socks and throw the chunky knit blanket over the whole family while reading a book or watching a movie. Take your baby out to the backyard and walk barefoot in the grass. Even if you’re not 100% comfortable, like when walking barefoot on a gravel road, awakening your sense of touch is a great way to really live in the moment and solidify a memory.
Sound
Open the windows. One of my favorite auditory ways to make my life feel like a cinematic masterpiece is to hear nature in the background. Birds chirping, leaves rustling, crickets and frogs singing. Even in a more urban area, listening to the sounds of the world and life around you feels invigorating. Other ways to incorporate auditory senses are to play music, play it softly in the background, or play it loud and have a kitchen dance party. Pick the soundtrack to your romantic motherhood journey.

C.S. Lewis once said, “The Homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only- and that is to support the ultimate career.”
Motherhood is more than a full-time job. It is our children’s everything. But remember when you were a little girl, and you were playing with baby dolls, dreaming about when it would all be real? This is it. It’s here. Often, we so badly want them to have a good childhood that we forget to enjoy the moment for ourselves, even if we’ve been waiting our whole lives for this. Savor it, take in every moment of it. Remember that their childhood is also your motherhood. That’s why I’m romanticizing motherhood, and why I think you should too!

AMDG
Emma Williams
Catholic wife and homeschooling mother of five.

Read more about parenthood and childhood connection at Paraclete Pedagogy.