Are young mothers invisible?

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I would come home from class and sit in my dorm and watch episodes of TLC’s “A Baby Story” and “Bringing Home Baby” like it was mandatory. Every.single.day. I would be in front of the TV for two-hour blocks watching to see what my life would soon be like.

But I never really saw that. It seemed like all the episodes were interchangeable. It would always start out with a happily married 30something couple. He had the adventurous spirit, she was always kind and caring. He was a software engineer; she was a teacher.

They always lived in a nice home with a huge kitchen and lots of counter space for the food that the neighbors and friends always brought over.

They always drove home in a pretty, new, shiny car and had a top-of-the-line stroller. They were always happy, even in the midst of the sleep deprivation and hormone changes.

Just ONCE I wanted to see a woman who yelled at her husband to get his ass out of bed so he could help feed the baby, or see the look on the husband’s face when they get the freakin’ hospital bill only a few days after getting home from the hospital. Something that makes me feel a little more normal.

And it wasn’t just on TLC. In the parenting magazines I’ve devoured by the dozens since I’ve been a mother, I have yet to see anything that closely resembles my life. I never saw an article titled, “No babysitter? How to get your kid to sleep through a Econ lecture.”

At times, I definitely feel like young mothers are invisible. Our struggles are not recognized by the mainstream, especially as the age of first-time mothers gets higher and higher.

I have been DYING to see an article about establishing your career as a new mother. Not ADVANCING your career, because that would imply that you’ve had some experience under your belt. But establishing your career. I’ve been a mother longer than I’ve had a career so sometimes I feel like I don’t know which way to go or what to choose.

Or here’s another topic: How to save money. Perhaps I’m making a horrible assumption, but I would like to think that if you don’t get pregnant until your 30s, you should have a decent amount of money sacked away for a rainy day. But since my husband and I were making a COMBINED $20K a year when we discovered we were pregnant, I was scared sh$%&*$@. And now that I finally have a salary, there is barely anything left over after bills, childcare especially.

I’m so tired of feeling like my experience, and the experience of so many moms I know, isn’t valid.

What about you? Do you think young moms are invisible in the media?

Read more by Tara at The Young Mommy Life.