Motherhood Didn’t Make Me Smaller — It Made Me Stronger
A Bad Breed Womanhood Post Straight From One Bad Maa
There’s this quiet lie women are handed at every stage of their life:
that motherhood is supposed to shrink you.
That once you have a kid, you’re supposed to soften.
Quiet down.
Dress differently.
Dream smaller.
Carry only enough ambition to keep the house standing and keep everyone fed.
You’re supposed to lose the pieces of yourself you worked hard to build, tuck them away, and trade them in for “acceptable mom behavior.”
But here’s the truth no one told me when I stepped into motherhood:
Motherhood didn’t make me smaller, it made me stronger.
Not cute-Instagram-inspirational stronger.
Not coffee-mug quote stronger.
I’m talking real strong.
The kind that comes from heavy seasons, hard choices, late nights, early mornings, and grit you don’t develop anywhere else.
The kind that reshapes you whether you wanted it to or not.
The kind you don’t appreciate until you’re staring in the mirror years later thinking:
“Damn. I lived through all of that, and I’m still here rebuilding myself.”
Motherhood didn’t break me.
It forged me.
And now that my kid is older, now that college is happening and the world feels wide again, I’m stepping into the truth that was there all along: I didn’t lose myself to motherhood, I just hadn’t met the strongest version of me yet.
🫠The World Wanted Me to Shrink — I Did the Opposite
People love to say motherhood “calms you down.”
They say it makes you more responsible, more ladylike, more acceptable, more predictable.
But I don’t fit into that story.
I never did.
Yes, motherhood changed me.
But not in the way people assume.
It didn’t make me quieter, it made me clear.
It didn’t make me smaller, it made me focused.
It didn’t erase who I was, it sharpened her.
Motherhood didn’t end my story.
It set the damn foundation for who I was going to become.
The woman you’re seeing now, the one building the Realm, the one lifting, the one skating, riding, the one rebuilding her life from the ground up,
she exists BECAUSE of motherhood, not in spite of it.
🤝 I Held Everything Together — Rebel Energy
Rebel is the part of me that carried motherhood like armor.
She’s the discipline.
The backbone.
The version of me that didn’t get to fall apart even when everything around me was breaking.
The one who woke up early, stayed up late, showed up even when exhausted, and kept the world running.
Rebel isn’t soft.
She’s structured.
Stubborn.
Solid.
She held the line.
In real life, that was me.
Holding down jobs, and college, his school, practice after practice.
Handling responsibilities.
Keeping life stable, or at least trying too.
Being the one everyone relied on.
Motherhood didn’t soften Rebel, it made her unstoppable.
She became the version of me that learned:
“If I don’t show up, nobody else will.”
And she never missed a day.
🥷I Fought Through the Hard Seasons — Rage Energy
Rage isn’t angry, she’s fire.
She’s the pressure, the survival mode, the “keep going even when life hits hard” energy.
She’s the fight that only mothers understand.
She’s the side of me that came out every time I protected my kid, every time life hit harder than I expected, every time I had to choose strength instead of comfort.
Rage is the emotional muscle motherhood built in me.
The part that says:
“I’ll get through this. I always do.”
People mistake Rage for aggression, but she’s really perseverance.
She’s momentum.
She’s the part of me that handled storms while still making dinner, paying bills, and showing up for everything.
Motherhood didn’t tame Rage, it gave her purpose.
🇺🇸 I Lost Myself For a Minute — And Now I’m Finding Freedom Again (Lawless Energy)
Every mom who’s ever worked, loved, sacrificed, lived through chaos, or tried to hold her life together knows this feeling:
You lose parts of yourself along the way.
Not because you want to.
Not because you were forced to.
But because there are only so many hours in a day and you give the best ones away.
Lawless is the part of me that disappeared the longest.
The fun.
The wild.
The laughter.
The spontaneity.
The woman who used to skate, ride, move, explore, create, and LIVE.
But she’s back now.
Motherhood didn’t kill her.
She was just waiting for me to have space again.
Lawless is the reminder that I’m allowed to be free.
That I’m allowed to have joy.
That I get to live loud even after raising a kid.
And that freedom?
It feels earned.
👹 My Creativity Survived Every Stage — Vex Energy
Here’s the thing people never tell you:
Motherhood takes creativity.
Every day you’re improvising, adjusting, problem-solving, imagining, building, teaching.
But you’re so busy surviving that you don’t realize you’re creating the whole time.
Vex is the part of me that survived the years when I didn’t have time for art.
The weirdness.
The spark.
The imagination.
The color.
The voice that stayed alive even when life got black-and-white.
Now, she’s coming back louder:
- through the Realm
- through the characters
- through the art
- through the writing
- through the world I’m building from scratch
Motherhood didn’t steal my creativity.
It protected it until I was ready.
>>>> More On One Bad Maa and Creativity, Turning Chaos into Creativity Straight From Rebel<<<<
🦅 My Kid Grew Up — So Did I
People talk a lot about how kids grow up.
No one talks enough about how mothers grow too.
When your kid becomes independent, when the house gets quieter, when the routine changes, the baby bird finally leaves the nest, there’s this moment where you ask yourself:
“Who am I now?”
And for the first time in years…
you get to answer honestly.
You get to build a life that isn’t centered around surviving.
You get to step back into the dreams you paused.
You get to rebuild the woman inside you.
You get to rediscover your identity.
You get to create a future that has YOUR name stamped on it.
Motherhood didn’t end your life.
It just gave you a second version of it.
👵 You Don’t Age Out, Phase Out, or ‘Mom Out’ of Becoming Powerful
This is the heart of the Bad Breed Womanhood pillar:
You don’t stop becoming powerful just because you became a mother.
You don’t stop becoming YOU because your responsibilities shifted.
You don’t stop dreaming because you had to hold shit together.
You don’t stop evolving when your kid grows up.
You are allowed to chase your goals.
You are allowed to rebuild.
You are allowed to transform.
You are allowed to outgrow old versions of yourself.
You are allowed to want more.
You are allowed to LIVE again.
Motherhood didn’t make you smaller.
It made you dangerous.
It made you disciplined.
It made you focused.
It made you tougher.
It made you wiser.
It made you the strongest version of you you’ve ever been.
And now…
You are finally free to become her!
>>>> Read More about The Perks Of Womanhood Here on One Bad Maa<<<<