Self-Made Mom

We’ve all been there - the days of new motherhood where you can’t remember if you’re wearing clean underwear, where you put your car keys, or what you ate last night for dinner.  “New mom brain,” when your memory lapses and when you can’t think rationally, is a common biproduct of the first year few months of motherhood.  When you have new mom brain you can pretty much forget forming coherent sentences or thinking creatively.  The new mom cranium just isn’t up to the task. 

I’ve long wondered why this occurs to almost every new mother I know. And I think I may have found a cause: lack of showering.  Let me explain.

In an article I read about the ways people think of and stimulate their brain for ideas, I came across an interesting quote from a writer, Tammy Tibbetts, at Ladies’ Home Journal.  

According to recent research, warm water running over your body can stimulate the outer layer of your skin releasing molecules that ‘talk’ to your nerve endings… These molecules include beta-endorphins which trigger brain activity.

Hmm… so showering can make you smarter?  It’s all coming together now. As a new mom, I found it very difficult to take the time to shower regularly, let alone sit there and relax while the warm water stimulated my brain.  I don’t know any mom who is able to relax luxuriously in the shower - unless she has full-time help.  (Does this mean rich moms are smarter?)  I’m thinking this makes total sense: lack of showering/ short showers = new mom brain/ absent-mindedness. 

I’m not saying my analysis is scientific, but at least us moms now have a new scapegoat we can point to when we accidentally leave the house with no food, drink or diapers (ok, maybe that was just me) or when we go back to work after maternity leave and can’t form coherent sentences at that important meeting.  We just didn’t have time to shower.

Tags: shower, new mom brain, new mom

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