The Mommy Fashion

Trying to stay fashionable as a mother of young children (or perhaps any age children) is not just challenging, it can be down right impossible. Words such as life-threatening, irresponsible and drudgery come to mind at the thought of about being fashionable.

I am aware that generally patent leather spiked heel shoes look better than sneaker-like Merrel's when throwing on a pair of fitted jeans. Yes, the Burberry cashmere makes for a much more stylish scarf than the green fleece one from the dollar store. And I know the crisp white button down oxford with ruffles will outshine an Old Navy white t-shirt any day. You see, it's not that we mommies don't know style, it's just that it's almost impossible to make it work for us on a regular basis. Unless we're willing to undergo putting our children's lives at risk, ruin our clothes or add an hour to a workload that's already insurmountable, it just doesn't happen all that often. Because the truth of the matter is, wearing two inch stilettos while holding a baby and walking down the stairs can be life-threatening, one slip and it's over. And the splash of style and color that a Burberry scarf adds is wonderful, but when you mistake it as part of the clean-up diaper duty when you're in a public restroom and accidentally toss it in the trash, you're acting irresponsible. And while the ruffled oxford is adorable, two hours of going out and looking cute is not necessarily worth the three stain treatments the shirt has to undergo when you discover an unidentifiable spot despite every last effort to avoid the sticky hands, two washes and then a 10-minute iron to get it looking as crisp as it was before.

So, when you see us mommies walking around in our comfortable shoes, our cotton clothes with a stain here or here and a drab accessory, it's not that we don't realize our fashion is lacking, we're just having to put it on hold for a little bit. And until we're able to unpause our fashion-forward selves, we can always dream...