Stay-at-home mom photo series shows the "real" side of parenting
"Stay-at-home moms don't sleep all day."
A mom of two and professional photographer's photo series of stay-at-home moms shows motherhood isn't all "rainbows and butterflies."
Giedre Gomes, owner of Pictures by GG, typically takes photos that she calls "pretty, dreamy, moms in a flower fields kissing babies." But she said, as a mom of two boys ages 3 and 5, she knows that's not the reality.
"I wanted to show real life, reality, routine, when every single day is the same. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, cooking cleaning, dishes laundry, driving, shopping every single day same thing over and over. I wanted to show pictures that moms can relate to," Gomes told "Good Morning America."
She also wanted to show that "stay home moms don't sleep all day. Many people think, 'oh, good for you, you are home all day, you don't have to work.' That's not true, we don't get a day off, ever."
Gomes, like most moms, "loves her boys to pieces." But she is up front about the challenges of the day-to-day journey.
"Motherhood is not remembering what it’s like to get a full night’s sleep, wiping more poop than you ever thought you’d see in your life," she wrote on her Facebook page.
"Motherhood is no longer having privacy, never peeing or showering in peace. Motherhood is using your shirt to wipe runny noses and dirty faces. Motherhood is learning how to do everything with one hand while carrying a baby in another.
"Motherhood is waking up with a little butt or foot in your face. Motherhood is breastfeeding whenever, wherever. Motherhood is yoga pants and bad hair days. Motherhood is no longer shopping alone. Motherhood is having a filthy car all the time.
"Motherhood is not being able to call in sick because it’s a 24/7 job without a paycheck and the list goes on. But in the end, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being a mom means being completely and totally overwhelmed by love, joy, responsibility, and selflessness."
