This is my tummy after having three kids. It's a little bit fat, a little bit flabby and full of stretch marks. Not exactly Cameron Diaz's six-pack is it? Except my kids love it, especially my daughter. Caterina regularly strokes it and her favourite way to start the day is to have me jump up and down a few times while I'm trying to get dressed so she can watch it jiggle.
Here at iVillage we have decided to launch our own Mummy-Tummy-Pride movement. It is for all mums who are sick of seeing celebrity toned abs hours, days and mere weeks after birth. We're not falling for this crap any longer. We choose to LOVE our flabby bellies, our loose skin and our stretch marks because they are the signs of motherhood. We grew human beings from scratch! We rock! And so do our less-than-perfect tummies. Some mums do have flat and toned bellies after having kids and we celebrate that too (sort of).
Mia Freedman wrote about this recently in her post, This is EXACTLY what I wanted to do after having a baby. You? While discussing this issue in the office we all described our "Mummy Tummmies" and laughed at the fact most of our pants and jeans are now mid-rise and control-top.'
My sister and I sometimes talk about having a 'mummy tuck'. Apparently surgeons tighten loose skin through your belly button and you can get a boob job at the same time. I'll refrain from posting a pic of my boobs but let's just say that when I stand up they look like socks with one tennis ball in them and when I lie down they look like fried eggs. But this is major surgery. It's expensive. It takes weeks to recover from. Does it make sense for non-models to go to such extraordinary lengths because I'll bet you a month of ironing duty that there's some sort of surgical intervention or photo shopping taking place for photos like this to be posted just weeks after childbirth.
