To state the obvious, a lot changes when you become a mom.  Whether you’re a full-time stay-at-home mom or full-time work-outside-the-home mom, or a mom who falls somewhere in between, motherhood impacts a woman’s identity–priorities, values, perceptions, dreams, you name it.

Many moms, new and experienced alike, find themselves adapting, adjusting, reinventing, redefining, worrying, even struggling to understand who they are or who they have become through weeks, months and years of diaper changes, sleepless nights, curfews, sleep-away camps, graduations and empty nesting.

Trying to figure out who we are, who we’ve become, and where we’re headed can seem, in many ways, like a moving target that changes as quickly as our children change.  Perhaps the only constant is realizing or recognizing that who we WERE before kids and who we are now is different.  Maybe even very, very different.

It’s just so freakishly easy to get lost in mommyhood.  Not that that is a bad thing.  It’s totally awesome.  But losing yourself and rediscovering an identity that isn’t defined by parenting isn’t easy for most women.

Just when I think I’ve got the mom-identity thing figured out– who I am, what I want, where I want to go–and finally remembered that I have my very own dreams & hopes–I find myself back on the mom-identity roller-coaster.  On the bright side, I’ve realized there is time to figure it all out.  So, I decided long ago (and keep deciding and reminding myself over and over and over and over…again) to throw my hands up and enjoy the ride. What about you?

On Identity:  Good Reads for Moms 

• Moms Battle Identity, Worry and Balance
• Who am I Again?  Motherhood and Identity?  (House of Prince)
• Maintaining My Identity While Being a SAHM (Mission: Motherhood)
• I May Not Be a Mother – But I’m Still a Person
• Every Mother is a Working Mother (Daily Kos)
• Motherhood and Identity: I became a Mother and Lost Myself (Inspired to Action)