Redefining Success in Motherhood: Getting Your Pink Back
Reclaiming yourself while mothering: the courage to choose your own happiness
At some point in motherhood, success quietly changes its definition.
It stops looking like constant productivity, external validation, or pushing through at all costs. Success becomes less about what you can endure and more about what you choose to reclaim.
For me, motherhood didn’t begin gently.
In 2018, I lost myself completely after my daughter was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. Life became a cycle of fear, appointments, surgeries, and constant vigilance. I was focused on keeping my child alive and safe, but in doing so, I slowly disappeared. I didn’t recognize myself anymore.
What made that season even harder was how lonely it was.
While navigating my daughter’s surgeries and medical care, I was also living through a deeply painful domestic season. I was being cheated on by her father, who was facing his own struggles with addiction—stories that are not mine to tell, but realities that deeply affected me. I was carrying fear for my child while grieving the loss of trust, safety, and the family I imagined. The trauma of 2018 stayed with me long after the crisis passed.
Then, in 2020, everything began to shift.
I fell in love with my son’s father—now my husband—and for the first time in a long time, I felt safe. He became my soft place to land. With him, the world felt quieter and steadier, like a bubble where I could finally exhale. Before we had our son, it was just him, my daughter, and me—and it was beautiful.
He gave my daughter and me a true family experience at a time when I was still deeply traumatized by what 2018 took from me. He loved me without conditions, without needing me to be healed, perfect, or strong all the time—even while carrying his own hurts from life.
That kind of love changes you.
Nearly six years later, that love has become the foundation of the life we’ve built together. But stability didn’t mean ease.
As I navigated co-parenting challenges with my daughter, the world shut down. A pandemic hit. I gave birth to my son in uncertainty and fear. Shortly after, our household battled COVID-19 and RSV. We were sick, exhausted, and isolated—caring for our children while our bodies were depleted.
Autopilot doesn’t even begin to describe it.
It was relentless. It was overwhelming. And I often wondered when things would finally get easier.
Raising a daughter after heart surgery stays with you. The fear never completely disappears. At the same time, I was caring for a son constantly battling ear infections and experiencing speech delays. I was a 24/7 mother—physically, emotionally, and mentally—with no pause button.
My career remained on the back burner. My identity felt secondary. And for a long time, it felt like I never truly got to live for me. Outside voices—family opinions, expectations, pressure—were calling the shots for my life, my family, and my choices.
Until I made a decision.
Getting your pink back isn’t about rebellion or selfishness.
It’s about stability.
It’s about recognizing that choosing yourself creates a healthier home for everyone you love.
Finding myself again has made me happier, more self-aware, and more grounded. Choosing my career, my peace, and my identity doesn’t take away from my children or my husband—it gives them a mother and a wife who is present, fulfilled, and emotionally whole.
A mother who leads with clarity instead of exhaustion.
A mother who models boundaries, resilience, and joy.
Redefining success in motherhood means recognizing that women are powerhouses. We are fighters. We endure what many never see and still show up. But survival alone is not the goal.
Choosing yourself is not abandonment.
It is leadership.
Getting my pink back didn’t destabilize my home.
It created one.
This is the heart of Motherhood, Unfiltered—real stories about survival, love, identity, and choosing yourself without guilt.
If you’ve lived through seasons that asked everything of you before you had time to breathe, this space is for you.
Choosing yourself doesn’t mean you failed your family.
It means you chose to lead it from a place of strength, clarity, and love.
Getting your pink back is possible.
And you deserve it.
