Motherhood is messy.
And Giedre Gomes, a 35-year-old photographer who lives in Cedar Lake, Indiana, didn’t sugarcoat anything when she decided to take a series of photographs illustrating what being a mom really looks like for “Mother’s Day.”
Six weeks ago, Gomes — who has two sons, Mario, 5, and Rocco, 3 — had a “crazy idea” that she couldn’t get out of her head. As a photographer, she typically takes photos of clients and their children that look pristine.
“They’re pretty, dreamy moms in a flower fields kissing babies,” she told HuffPost. “And that’s beautiful, but after the photo shoots I come home to reality — to my own family and two boys — and there’s no rainbows, unicorns or butterflies.”
Gomes wanted to reveal the “reality and routine” part of motherhood that a lot of women could relate to. So she got a few of her mom friends together — with their kids — and snapped photos of what it’s really like to be called “Mommy.”
“It’s not easy being a mom; there are days that I wait for my husband to get home so I can get out for a half-an-hour,” Gomes said.
And although all the photos in the series reflect “everything I went through or still going through,” she said she’s recently experienced a tad more privacy in her life.
“I can finally take a shower alone,” she said. “But most of the time my 3-year-old still sits on the toilet and waits for me to be done.”
Hey, it’s the small victories, we suppose.
Check out some photos from Gomes’ series below.
