Mother's Day Corset

Over the past couple of years I've read a lot of historical fiction. Historical fiction, for all of you who don't indulge often in the literary world, is fiction that based off of true historical events. You may have recently seen the movie in theaters with Natalie Portman called The Other Boleyn Girl. This movie is a historical fiction based film. My introduction to this glorious world of queens, kings, and beheadings began when my friend Tiffany left a copy of Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess at my house. I thumbed through the first few pages and by the end of the first chapter I was hooked.

I'm not much of a fairytale kind of girl, so it may surprise some people how intrigued I can be with the royal courts of faraway lands. There's something about the enchanting tales of a princess in her lavish gowns and heavy jewels that sets off across the seas to find her prince and unite nations that awakens the feminine side of me that is sometimes forgotten. Her struggle to make it in her new country and be everything to everyone somehow makes me feel empowered. How could I not admire a woman who graciously wears a corset to cut off her circulation and only gets to indulge in a bath once a year?

The day I found out I was pregnant with a girl, I had a meltdown. I was sitting in my boss' office and I was crying myself into a puddle. "I can't have a girl," I sobbed. "I can't do tea parties and braid pigtails!" I thought for sure that God understood this and would only put me in care of dirty, messy, frog-toting boys. But nope, I was having a girl and I didn't know what I was falling apart! What does this have to do with stories of The Tudors and Marie Antionette?

Unlike her mother, my daughter was born with an appreciation of royal splendor. Through my modern day princess I am convinced that God has a sense of humor. Every day, my my four year old comes home from preschool and changes into a sparkly gown and tiara. She's even been known to sleep with the tiara. At least once a week we have a tea party with Dora the Explorer and Ballerina Barbie. I obligingly sip my tea, pinkie extended, and nibble imaginary cakes and crackers. On the inside I'm rolling my eyes toward the heavens imagining God, in all of His Glory, winking an eye at me.

At least her favorite band is Metallica.

In the fifteenth century women wore corsets. Here in the twenty first century, motherhood is my corset. It doesn't fit right, it's more than often uncomfortable, but it holds me together when I feel like I'm falling apart.

Here's to my princess and my little prince this Mother's Day!