What Strong Women Do

Introducing Mudroom Vox!! We know your time is limited and seems like it goes too fast. We want you to be able to experience The Mudroom in a new way! For some of our posts, we will begin adding audio versions read by the author that you can listen to on the go! These will be 5-8 minutes total so you can fit them in on your morning run, your school pick-up routine, or waiting in line at your favorite coffee shop.  Enjoy!

Listen to an audio version of Nicole Walters' "What Strong Women Do" post at The Mudroom.

"I’ve always prided myself on being part of a line of strong women. It wasn’t until I was a young working mom myself, wracked with anxiety brought on by all the things I believed I should be doing but couldn’t manage, that I realized a weakness I inherited, too. The waters of all the expectations I placed on myself were rising higher than I could swim. I was going under.

When I started admitting my feelings of failure, the women around me echoed back my anxiety. “Why can’t we do it all?” we said. We all felt weak, believing the strength of a woman meant being all the things to all the people all the time.

My mom admitted the disquiet she lived with as well. She never let us see it as children, but she struggled to keep her head above water, too. When I looked at her as a real person and not just Supermom, I saw the crack in the facade, the weak place I’d missed before: her inability to rest."