yawnSomething tells me mom and writer Julie Cook is about to get a lot of hate mail. She came out this week in the British tabloid the Daily Mail with a story about the drudgery of motherhood. The headline? "I love my son, but being a mother bores me."

G'head and hate on her ladies -- plenty of people already are -- but I'm not joining you. For one, I doubt Cook even wrote the provocative headline (little writer's secret here: often we don't). For another? I happen to agree with her.

Motherhood, especially early motherhood, is awfully boring.

Of course, I need to put in a little disclaimer here. I love my daughter to pieces, just the way that Cook probably loves her son.

But let me give you a picture of the first few months of her life:

She slept. She cried. She ate. She pooped in her diaper. She cried. She ate. She slept.

Did I mention she ate, slept, and pooped? Oh right, and cried.

She cried because she wanted to eat. She cried because she wanted to sleep. She cried because she'd pooped.

Don't get me wrong: I was very busy during the first year of my daughter's life what with all the feeding and diaper changing and trying to make her stop crying. I was happy, even, to finally have this little bundle of tears and poop in my arms.

But that doesn't mean it was interesting. In fact, I have a theory of sorts about the "watching paint dry is more exhilarating" quality of early motherhood. It's boring for a reason.

The boring same old same old is about all a mom can handle when she hasn't had a full night's sleep in six months. That's right, we need boring. The eat, sleep, poop, cry, later, rinse, repeat routine is something we can do in our sleep ... or would if we actually got any. If you really think about it, it's safer this way. We know what we're doing, and we can handle it. When things get exciting, they also get scary. I don't like scary ... do you?

The good news for all moms, even Julie Cook? Life with a 7-year-old is never boring. They don't actually shut up long enough for you to snooze off.

So be honest, does Julie Cook's confession really sound that shocking to you? Were you bored?

 

Image via twob/Flickr