The Millennial Mom: I’m Living My Best Life

Hey, it’s me, the millennial mom. I was raised by parents who told me “You can be anything you want.” So I did. I became a mother.  

Millennial moms are a unique bunch. Some of us were young when we had children. Some of us established our careers first. Some of us are single parents. We’re a diverse mix of health-conscious, ambitious, and bold. Other generations like to give us a hard time. The truth is that we’re not sitting around feeding our children tide pods for breakfast and taking selfies all day. We’re too busy making important changes in our families and the world.

As far as raising our children, the classic stereotypical American dream is long gone for us. None of us care for white-picket fences and perfect shrubbery. We’re not worried having exactly 2.3 kids (a boy and a girl — no more, no less). We’re inventing our own American dream. Instead of teaching our children they can have it all, we’re teaching them to be it all: brave, kind, tolerant, driven, honest, inventive, and adaptable. Vote for what you want, voice your concerns. Embrace change. That’s where you’ll find success.

Raising kids amidst so much technology is hard. Some may think life is easy for us now that we have the world’s information at our fingertips. The truth is, it makes parenting that much more terrifying. Now, I have set of challenges that include keeping my kids away from the dark side of YouTube and helping my first grader with common core math. What are all these boxes and circles for? Your guess is as good as mine.  

The school years are toughest. In today’s world, bullying doesn’t stop at school; it will follow you home and into your room. It will creep into your house through messages and group chats. It will make your child feel like they’re being crushed and can’t find a way out. Technology is amazing, but we all know there’s an ugly side to it.

Millennials have a reputation for being tuned out of the world and tuned into technology. In some ways we are. We’re looking at the world from a different point of view. Sometimes I find myself longing for the ’90s when none of us were glued to phones, but those days aren’t coming back anytime soon. Anyways, it’s not really just a phone. It’s my calendar, alarm, scheduler, notebook, encyclopedia (remember those?). It’s how I order my groceries. As a teacher, it’s a big part of my communication with my classroom parents. It’s how I check on the baby at lunch. It’s how I pay my bills and even how I read my bible.

While I like to look back, I also like to celebrate who we’ve become as mothers. Millennials are on track to be the most educated generation in history. We work smarter, not harder (in some situations). We’re drastically changing the workforce and the economy. We’re driving the divorce rate down. We are influential through our lives, both personally and online.  

I’m not perfect. Some days I work too much. Sometimes I forget to slow down and enjoy the small things. But each day, I look around and I love who my children are becoming. I settled down young, at the ripe old age of 22. No regrets here. I’m living my best life.