A year before that trip, when I found out I was pregnant with Emma. I remember hurrying to the library where I literally took out every single book I could find on pregnancy, childbirth and parenting. I beamed, completely unaware of what was to come. All those tomes I read religiously in the coming months told of varicose veins, stretch marks, hemorrhoids and hair loss. But on none of those pages I poured over in preparation for my new role in life did I find any reference to the condition I now refer to as Perpetual Motion Mama Syndrome.
Mamas are easy to spot in public.
Whether they are nursing their infants or cuddling their toddlers, these women are in continual motion. Watch a mama pause to talk to someone while out for a walk with her child and you will notice that she never stops pushing the stroller. She may be deep in conversation but that stroller keeps going back and forth, back and forth. The movement is purely instinctual. I have visions of our prehistoric ancestors, clad in animal skins in their caves, jiggling their hairy babies up and down.