The Mom Myth I Carried for Years — And the Truth That Finally Set Me Free

I believed that good moms don’t get overwhelmed.

If I’m being completely honest, I spent a long time believing something that ate away at me quietly, day after day.

I never said it out loud. I never wrote it down.
But deep down, I felt it.

Every time I was overstimulated.
Every time the noise was too loud, the house was too messy, the schedule was too full.
Every time I felt that tightness in my chest when everyone needed something from me at the exact same moment…

I would think,
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Why can’t I handle this better?”
“Other moms probably don’t feel like this.”

But here’s the truth I wish someone had told me sooner:
Motherhood is overwhelming. Full stop.

Not because we’re doing it wrong.
Not because we’re failing.
Not because we’re weak or dramatic or ungrateful.

But because motherhood is a constant layering of tasks, emotions, responsibility, and love — all happening at the exact same time.

I used to think that the moms who looked calm were somehow built differently than me. Like they had a thicker skin, or more patience, or some magical internal switch that I just didn’t come with.

But now I know better.

Motherhood is not a calm, controlled experience.

It’s sensory overload.
It’s emotional labor.
It’s decision fatigue.
It’s being needed from the second you wake up until the second you go to sleep — and sometimes in the middle of the night, too.

And yes, it’s also love. So much love that sometimes it feels like it could swallow you whole.

But even love can be overwhelming when you never get a moment to just breathe.

Some days the overwhelm hits like a wave.
Other days it sneaks up on you slowly — small frustrations layering themselves until suddenly you’re standing in the kitchen crying over something that wasn’t even a big deal.

And for so long, I took those moments as proof that I wasn’t doing enough or being enough.

But being overwhelmed doesn’t mean I’m failing.
It means I’m human.

We were never designed to multitask constantly, to carry this much emotional weight, or to meet every need instantly.
We weren’t meant to be everything to everyone without resting, without support, without space to just exist as ourselves for a moment.

Once I finally admitted that to myself, something shifted.

I stopped treating overwhelm like a character flaw.
I started treating it like a signal — a little tap on my shoulder saying:

“You’re carrying too much.
You’re giving too much.
You need a minute. And that’s okay.”

Letting go of the myth that good moms don’t get overwhelmed didn’t fix everything overnight.
But it made me gentler with myself.
It helped me stop comparing my behind-the-scenes to someone else’s highlight reel.
And it gave me permission to be what I actually am: a real mom doing her best.

So if you’ve been carrying this myth too, I want you to hear me clearly:

You are allowed to feel overwhelmed.
You are allowed to need help.
You are allowed to cry, pause, reset, and breathe.
You are allowed to be human — even while being a really good mom.

Motherhood is full of beautiful moments, yes.
But it’s also full of hard ones.
And being honest about that doesn’t make us less of a mom.
It makes us more connected, more supported, and more real.

If this myth has been sitting heavy on your shoulders, I hope today you set it down.

You don’t have to carry it anymore.

And you definitely don’t have to carry it alone.