Are you more emotional

[isabel]

After having kids?

I swear, every little thing brings out so much more emotion than it used to. Death, pain, whatever. It's all so much more intense for me now.

My boss' good friend died last week at a young age. I've been really sad for him and even cried a couple times. Boss sent out a video tribute to his friend today and I just watched it and am crying again. It is really sad and it's not weird to feel emotional about it, but this level is strange for me and I can recognize that, even though it's an awful thing. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I just kind of feel like a mess lately and I'm curious if it's a hormonal thing that might go away. Or that I should learn to live with.

[lilac05]

Yes, but I don't know if it's a kids/mom thing, or if it's a maturity thing. I am much more empathetic, and feel like I can see myself in other people's shoes more than I could/did when I was younger.

[ErinExpat]

Yes. Times 1000.

It sounds cheesy, but everyone is someone's BABY, man.

[KKD]

I have always been very emotional and quick to tears, but since having kids I'm a damn near basketcase.

[Jalapeñomel]

No, but I've always been super emotional, so I'm not sure it could've gotten worse.

[sangria]

Yep. Being a mother has utterly ruined me. I had never even cried during the saddest movies and now? A cricket accidentally drowned the bathtub while I tried to save him and we practically had to conduct a funeral because I felt so bad.

I kind of miss my soulless stone cold heart sometimes.

[isabel]

Aug 31, 2015 21:59:10 GMT -5 ErinExpat said:

Yes. Times 1000.

It sounds cheesy, but everyone is someone's BABY, man.

It's totally this. And looking at everything from a parent's perspective.

I just finished a book about this girl who supposedly commits suicide and her mom uncovers the truth and I'm like bawling at the end because the poor mom lost her daughter and it was so sad and unnecessary. And I'm like, it's fucking fiction, get a grip! But the I just cried more.

[cabbagecabbage]

Yes. Any walls I built up were crushed by motherhood.

[honeychai]

Yes!

This became evident recently watching all the Katrina footage in the wake of the anniversary. It tore me up. Completely gutted me. The images of mothers holding their children pleading for help. Omg.

Watching the news coverage when it actually happened, pre-kids, affected me, but not nearly as profoundly as rose images affect me today.

I think having kids opened up something inside of me that allows me to connect on a deeper level to the suffering of others.

Damn, kids.

[Deleted]

I don't know. 

I get choked up over a lot of things, not tears, but definitely affected.  

Is it more than before?  Not sure. 

[rupertpenny]

Bad things directly related to kids are even harder for me to hear about now, but otherwise no.

Sometimes I feel like I'm broken because I don't have what seem to be the "normal" mom emotions like being sad or missing my kid during the workday, wanting them to stay little forever, being emotional about milestones. Maybe my AD dose is too high? Or maybe I just really do have a cold black heart, haha.

[nannersp]

Aug 31, 2015 22:01:40 GMT -5 KKD said:

I have always been very emotional and quick to tears, but since having kids I'm a damn near basketcase.

Ditto this!

[isabel]

Dammit, you guys. I always sort of prided myself on my lack of empathy. Lol Not really, but it's true that I have historically not been terribly empathetic.

I don't like the new me. It's unnerving and, frankly, kind of inconvenient. I don't like feeling so emotional.

[miso]

Only about the kid herself. I feel very deeply when it comes to her.

Everything else?

No change really.

[spellingbea]

This is going to make me sound terrible, but I didn't have a real emotional connection to kids before DD. A story about something happening to a child was terrible, of course, but in an abstract way. A story about an animal would wreck me emotionally, sometimes for days. Now it's the complete opposite. I used to love scary movies, but can't handle most of them anymore. Hell, some episodes of Dateline are too much.

[dellabear]

Yes, for sure. I was pretty indifferent to,a lot of traumatic and sad stuff before, now it affects me more and lots of things bring tears to my eyes that old me would have ignored or scoffed at,

[underwaterrhymes]

I've always been emotional.

But having a kid makes me think about my kid every time I hear something bad on the news, which makes me emotional in a more selfish way, if that makes sense. I think about the people involved still, but now I also think about the world my children are growing up in and how I want it to be the best possible world for them and how far we still have to go.

[sapphireblue]

Aug 31, 2015 22:00:52 GMT -5 RexManningDay said:

I don't think so. I still react the same (tears) way I would have before. With the exception of actual baby distress/neglect/abuse in the media - real or fake. I literally just can't watch anymore.

Exactly me too. I always was very emotional, I cry easily at sad things, get choked up at happy things or heartwarming stories. 

But since I had a baby I have far less tolerance for anything bad happening to a baby. My tolerance was low before but I definitely have an extra edge now if anything like that is shown on TV.

[sonrisa]

Yes and no. I feel like i can no longer hold large tragedies in my mind. I have to break them down to understand them or I get overwhelmed. I can remember having a sense of the scale of september 11th, or the number of American military service people killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the victims of Katrina, or the Dec 2004 tsunami. Since they were born I have trouble feeling the scale of such events without losing hold. The earthquake and tsunami in Japan or even Newtown. I can focus on a part of it at a time.

[whiskeyandwine]

Aug 31, 2015 22:27:26 GMT -5 pennypenny said:

Yes. I have not seen Criminal Minds since being pregnant. I cannot watch it.

I am definitely much more empathetic.

I was binge watching this during my pregnancy. Then at some point around 8 months I just couldn't take it any more.

I've always been highly emotional. It's worse now. Not so pretty. Lol

[marylennox]

Yes.

[partiallysunny]

Yes, but it translates into me crying more at movies and books.

[wavepool]

I cry at everything now. There are times when it is really embarrassing!

[mom2twoboys]

Yes. I am definitely much more empathetic.

[Linie]

I don't have children, but I have more empathy with age. But I can also be harder and colder towards people who are mean or small minded, or plain stupid.

[Zoly]

It was worse while I was breastfeeding, but I definitely still feel more emotional even after weaning. I tell him all the time that he melted my cold, dead heart.

[cheeseandcrackers]

Yup.. i have definitely become more emotional. Also, movies make me cry now lol.

[adhdfashion]

It only lasts a couple months after the baby for me. Then I am back to cold hard self.

[rachel6789]

Most definitely!

[TrudyCampbell]

So much more, yes.