Coined by the queen, Megan Thee Stallion, “hot girl summer” means embracing a lifestyle that many of us moms feel as though we left behind many moons ago. The term, for those stuck under the raising small kids rock, encourages us to be unapologetically ourselves and to live our truth. She wants us to forget about trying to impress, embrace the skin we are in and to make room for a lot more fun in our lives.
Girl is not wrong! She’s very much on to something. A thousand years from now, the term will probably be an ancient proverb, meant to remind young women their hot girl summer comes from within. Their life should not be what other people (especially men) ask of them. They should do what they want, when they want, and give zero consideration to anyone else’s opinion about it. They will embrace their CURRENT body composition rather than striving for unrealistic standards and understand their weight loss or gain is nobody’s business. And how they choose to live and love is also nobody’s business. These smart women will tell all the Brendas to butt out, and then proceed to a fun night on the town with girlfriends.
Sooner or later, some of those ladies will eventually choose to be moms. And out of both necessity and lack of rest, the once young vibrant women will lose track of those ideals because they will be too busy making sure their tiny humans are still alive and thriving. While most of us still want to think of ourselves as those happy-go-lucky young women, when we should have better appreciated our bodies (because oh my god they were perfect, and we didn’t realize it), our summers are now HOT for very different reasons. I mean, we still got it goin’ on, but also we are all just collectively SWEATING!
We are hot because, it’s 105-degree heat index, and there’s a baby nursing under a blanket while we sit on a blazing park bench hoping a toddler doesn’t fall from the monkey bars.
We are hot because, it’s the season of having to painfully peel our thighs from plastic chairs. In fact, you know when it’s finally transitioned from spring to summer when the chair gets up with you!
We are hot because, pre-menopause hormones are raging, and while the air conditioning is set to frozen tundra, a hot flash still hits in the middle of the night, causing meltdowns of nuclear proportion.
We are hot because, as we sit in the pounding heat during a little league baseball game at noon on a Saturday, we look down to find our boob sweat has taken over the bottom half of our shirts.
We are hot because, while lugging beach towels, toys, snacks, water bottles, sunscreen and floats on one arm, and pushing a stroller with the other, we realize we arrived to the pool more saturated and out of breath than if we had cannonballed in to the deep end.
We are hot because, even though we had the intention of a nice backyard BBQ with friends, the reality is an afternoon spent rage cleaning and trying to wipe off our neck sweat because we attempted a hairstyle other than a messy bun. It’s so scorching even the guacamole is glistening.
We are hot because, while we try to give our kids fun experiences. that always involves buckling squirming and cranky kids in to flaming hot booster seats while the asphalt melts our sandals beneath the car.
We are hot because, we realize after several attempts, aluminum free deodorant is not a smart decision during the summer months.
We are hot because, no amount of baby powder or dry shampoo will keep us from looking like we just completed the ice bucket challenge.
It is summer. It is hot. We might not be spending a lot of evenings relishing in carefree fun with our girlfriends, but one day we will be there again. So let’s take some advice from Megan, and mentally high five each other on the way to the pool. Because Lord knows we don’t have the hands free to actually do it.
