How I Keep My Sanity And Raise Happy Children (Hopefully).

4 things I’d like every mother to know.

Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels

“I was born in Bulgaria, but we moved to Israel when I was 13. In Isreal, military service is mandatory for both men and women. It starts when you’re 18 — boys serve three years, girls serve two.

Years later, I returned to Bulgaria and had two children. As I was raising them, there were moments I’d say to myself that I’d rather be back in the Isreal army.

True, they give you only two uniforms, and you’re allowed to wash them once a week. This means after the first two days of the week, you walk around with dirty, smelly clothes soaked with sweat.

But it can’t compare to how dirty I felt after my first c-section. Because of my surgery, I couldn’t take normal showers. I bled for over thirty days, and breastmilk would leak from my breasts day and night. That was on top of my baby barfing on me a few times a day.

Then there’s the sleep. By law, every soldier has to sleep a minimum of 6 hours in the Isreal military, which is amazing. When you’re raising small children, there are no such laws.

There are no days off. You’re emotionally fragile. You don’t even own your body anymore.