Being a Mom in Guam can be really fantastic and full of adventure. But it’s also full of challenges and hardship. Because motherhood is one of the main focuses of my life on this island, I thought I’d make this blog post about my mommy journey.
Let’s start with the good stuff. Guam is such a cool and beautiful place to live. I really wish Kelly and Clayton were old enough to remember it. Maybe Kelly will have a few memories of her last year here. She’ll be 4 when we leave. I doubt Clayton will remember anything about his birthplace, but we sure will have some amazing pictures to show him!
A tropical paradise gives you so many interesting places to take your kids to explore. We can go to the beach whenever we want, 365 days a year. We can go on a hike through the jungle to find old World War II guns. Or we can explore the caves on the east coast of the island and get some amazing views along the way. (We actually haven’t checked out the caves yet. We’re waiting until Clayton is a little older and can handle the heat better.) I love being able to take my kids to the playground every day because the weather is always beautiful. Even if it rains, the sun usually comes out at some point and we can go play outside.
But there are certainly some cons to living on an island halfway around the world. For one, it’s hot. Really hot. All the time. I was 6 months pregnant when we first got to Guam and I was miserable. But I figured it was just because I was pregnant and assumed it wouldn’t be so bad once I had the baby. Well, it’s still really freaking hot. So while all those outdoor activities I just described are really fun, they also involve lots of time in really hot weather. Most of the time I suck it up and go outside anyway, for Kelly. But there are definitely days where we don’t leave the house because air conditioning just feels so much better. There are a few indoor playgrounds on the island but you have to pay by the hour to let your kids play there, which I haven’t been able to justify doing yet. I feel like I should just let her play outside for free, especially since the heat doesn’t bother her at all.
The biggest con to being a mom on Guam for me is being so far from family and close friends. Skype and Facetime are wonderful things that help us feel closer. But I really miss being able to spend time with everyone… especially my other mom friends. I’ve got several friends with kids, but we all live in different places and never get to interact with one another in person. Not being able to watch how other moms interact with their kids has left me feeling like I’m all alone in some of the negative parts of motherhood. No one shares the negative stuff in a Facebook post or a “how’s it going” email. So it becomes easy to believe that you’re the only one going through some of the hard stuff. I genuinely believed that I HAD to be the only mom who lost her patience over a 2 year old taking forever to put her shoes on. I couldn’t imagine any of the moms I know losing their cool when their baby woke up for the 8th time that night.
I’ve had some trouble with my post-partum emotions after this pregnancy. I didn’t experience this after I had Kelly, but I’ve had some real issues controlling my emotions in the last couple of months and it’s left me feeling like a crazy person half the time. But in the last week or two I’ve come across some mommy blogs that talk about other moms going through the exact same thing. Literally the EXACT same situations that I’ve faced. And it’s made me feel so much better. I’m not crazy! I’m not losing my mind or being a terrible mother! (I’ve certainly felt like a terrible mother more than once lately.) I’m just a mom of a 2 year old and a 3 month old and THAT IS HARD. When you’re getting ready to have kids, you hear all about the hard pregnancy stuff, the hard birth stuff and the hard newborn stuff. But no one prepares you for how much harder it gets as they get older. I guess a big part of being a mom is just rolling with the punches and trying not to pull all your hair out along the way.
Remind me to give Kelly a huge thank you one day… for all the times she’s had to put up with her crazy, sleep-deprived mama who’s just trying to figure out this whole parenting thing.
**If you need some reassurance that you’re not alone in the hard parts of motherhood, here are a couple of the blogs I’ve read recently that really helped me:
http://www.foreverymom.com/the-day-i-totally-blew-it-as-a-mom/
letsgotoguam 
SO appreciate your honesty. also? me too.
❤
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