Post-Baby Weight

I have to admit it: I quickly click on links showing celebrities' post-baby bodies.  I am not sure why.  To see that it is possible to look like perfection after growing a baby inside your body?  To see if their bodies' have any scars or evidence of once growing those babies?  To see how I compare?

I do compare myself.  How are some of them able to show off rock hard abs eight weeks after having a baby?  Heck, doing it even eight months later seems like quite a feat.  

On one hand, yes, let's celebrate women still being fit, attractive, and, dare I say it, sexy, after becoming mothers.  On the other hand, are we saying that our ultimate goal is maintaining our physical attractiveness?  Does our value depend on it?  If so, have we -- women -- really made any progress?  And, I know some people say that being fit and thin are just about being healthy -- and maybe that is a factor -- but I believe it has more to do with the importance society places on a woman's appearance (for its attractiveness, not as evidence of good health).  If that's true, we have made minimum progress as a society.  I certainly don't see men under the same pressure to maintain their appearance.  

I can say that it makes me feel pretty bad that I wasn't able to show off rock hard abs eight weeks, eight months, or even eighteen months after having the boys.  I am not sure I ever will.  I have lost all of the weight, and then some, but there is this extra skin, and it's not pretty.  It's actually kinda gross.  But it's my proof that these two quickly growing boys were once tiny babies growing and living inside me.   For that reason, I think I may like it.