Didn't your mother ever teach you not to stare?...This one's for you, ladies.

I am debating how to begin this rant, as it is a BIG pet peeve of mine and I don't want to come off like a hormonal 13 year old. I also hope that this post helps two people--the ones guilty, and the innocent. Ok, ok, what the what am I taking about?! Maybe I should go backwards here...Next week my baby girl will be 10 months old (What?!!! Where has the time gone?)...that would make me 10 months postpartum, and still rockin a....wait for it...postpartum belly! What?! That's preposterous!! So part of me is being sarcastic (that would be the realistic part of me,) but sadly part of me is really frustrated and cant seem to stop comparing myself to what I think of as "everyone else."  What I mean by that is I only see who I choose to see, which would primarily be women whose bodies bounced back to their pre-preggo figures before the baby even popped out! Well maybe not that fast, but you can catch my drift. Whether that is truly common or not, it is NOT my experience. Even after running 20 miles a week, weight training 3 times a week, and eating healthier than most people that I know, my body still wants to hang on to that belly! I do want to interject quickly that I am still breastfeeding my daughter, and plan to until she is 1 year old (unless she bites my boob off, which is very possible based on happenings of the past few days...OUCH!). I plan to write a completely different post on breastfeeding, but felt it is necessary to mention since most people will tell you that you will lose weight if you breastfeed. As that is true for some, it is not the case for all of us--like myself. Ok, so backtracking...here comes my issue..the whole reason I am writing this. Being a woman, and now one that has endured  the beautiful miracle of pregnancy and childbirth, I feel that I am just that much more sensitive to the differences of all women--specifically concerning weight. Primarily because I have come to find that there is no such thing as "normal". Repeat: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS NORMAL!!!! How could there be? Every body, pregnancy, birth, child, etc is different to some degree or many. The only thing normal about any of us is that we are all human. However, society likes to tell us how we should look, and we believe them. At least I do. Not because I am content with someone dictating my life, but because I do not want to be different, and I want to be beautiful. So we (I) buy into normal being "rail thin", and back to my pre-pregnancy body 2 months postpartum. Now, I know society has gotten to some of you also.As I can't read your minds, I can certainly interpret your actions, at least when they are directed at me. To those of you that may or may not be concerned here (I will let you be the true judge of your own behavior), I would like to ask if you think that I cant see you staring at my stomach when we I walk up to say hello. Guess what? People can tell when you are not making eye contact..wanna know how? They have eyes too!!! WHAAAA?!!!!!!! Yep, I can see you when you are standing two feet in front of me staring at my stomach..or shall I say glancing up and down, up and down. I think you may think you are as fast as lighting, and maybe I didn't notice. Here's the thing, if you really want to see my stomach, just ask...I will lift my shirt up for you and you can stare as long as you would like. When you are done, maybe we can have an actual conversation regarding something interesting...or not. You know the worst part about this? Some of you are Moms yourself. Id like to say you should know better, but how would I know that? Then there are those who have not yet had the privilege of carrying, and then birthing the greatest love and joy that God could ever bless you with. I'd like to say "mind you business","up here a-hole!", or "are you done?", but  don't..its not polite. Anyway, when the day comes that you are blessed with such a gift, I want you to feel safe coming to me to draw on my experience if need be. I mean it. In the meantime, I hope someone reads this and gets SOMETHING out of it. If not, that's OK because I did. I am working hard on having a healthy relationship with my body, and will continue to if not just so my daughter can learn to love herself as she is...as God made her. One day, she is going to learn what society thinks, and I hope I will be example enough to show her that the only thing that matters is what she thinks, and how she feels--that BEAUTIFUL is however she defines it to be..without any help from society. So, whether or not you continue to stare is out of my control, and I hope that one day you too can define your own kind of beautiful..without the help of anyone else.