Recently, I've gotten a lot of invitations to attend parties for something called 31 Gifts. I don't know much about it, but I glanced at an invite and saw there were a lot of purses. If you know me, you know I'm not good with purses. If I buy one purse a year, that's a lot. I have a black Coach bag and a brown Vera Bradley bag. That's all. And I will carry the brown purse when wearing black shoes and vice versa. You see, I don't wear a purse as a means of fashion. Mine are strictly function. They have to fit all my crap and have pockets in certain places to hold specific things. All purses must have pockets. Did you notice, when you became a mom, that your purse style changed? Oh sure, in the beginning, you had a cute little purse and a stylin' diaper bag. And then, as your child got older or as you got to child number two, you started to realize you couldn't remember what day it was so never mind remembering two bags when you left the house! So, the diaper bag becomes the purse. Because the diaper bag is your life and the purse is your life, so why not make them one?
Then, your child grows out of diapers and you don't need that giant bag anymore. But you still need way more stuff than you did pre-kids. You still need wipes. Heck, my girls are 10 and 7 and I still carry baby wipes! You need tissues and sunblock and lotion and hand sanitizer and a first aid kit and crayons and there's got to be room in there for happy meal toys. All of that in addition to the stuff everyone keeps in their purse. That's a lot. So, I guess you have to say goodbye to the small purse - you can give those to your kids for dress up. Isn't that just kind of how life is once you have kids? All the nice things you once had - you have to say goodbye to them. Most of the time, you don't miss it. You don't really miss the unstained furniture, the clean car, the fancy work clothes. It's a tradeoff - a really good one! So the next time you see me with a brown purse and black shoes - don't judge - just accept me as a mom with no fashion sense and a gigantic purse!
