There was a time when getting dressed was just getting dressed. I’d pick an outfit, do my hair, grab my bag and leave the house. These days, getting dressed happens somewhere between making breakfast, finding missing shoes, checking backpacks, packing snacks and realizing we should have left the house five minutes ago. By the time everyone else has what they need, it’s really easy for me to grab whatever is clean and call it a day.
And sometimes I still do exactly that.
But lately, I’ve been having fun with clothes again, which is something I didn’t realize I had missed as much as I did. Not dressing up for somewhere special or trying to have the perfect outfit every day. Just actually thinking about what I want to wear, putting a few things together and feeling a little more like myself when I walk out the door.
So, I decided to start documenting it.
What I wore this week between drop-off + pickup: mom of three edition.
I love the idea of this series because these are outfits for my actual life. I’m not getting dressed for an imaginary schedule filled with brunches and events. Most days, I’m doing school drop-off and pickup, working from home, running errands, grabbing coffee, taking care of Evie, getting someone to baseball or trying to squeeze approximately 47 things into the hours before everyone is home again.
For a long time, I think I subconsciously believed that if I didn’t have somewhere important to go, there wasn’t much reason to put effort into getting dressed. Cute dress? Save it for dinner. Skirt? Maybe church. New top? I’ll wear it when we actually have plans.
Meanwhile, I was living 95 percent of my life in the “in-between” days.
But those regular days are my life. Why shouldn’t I wear something I love for them?
There’s also another layer to this for me because I’m still figuring out my style after having my third baby. My body has changed. My lifestyle has changed. Even the things I feel comfortable wearing have changed. I’ve had moments of looking at a closet full of clothes and feeling like none of them belong to the version of me standing in front of it.
I think a lot of women go through that after having babies. You can get stuck between who you used to dress and who you think you’re supposed to become. Then you add changing sizes, postpartum bodies and the very practical requirement that you need to be able to chase a child through a parking lot, and suddenly getting dressed feels a lot more complicated than it used to.
I’m trying to stop dressing for some future version of myself.
I don’t want to wait until I lose a certain amount of weight to buy jeans that fit. I don’t want to stare at something cute in my closet and tell myself I’ll wear it “when.” I can work toward personal goals and still believe the body I have today deserves clothes that fit it, feel comfortable and make me feel good.
And I definitely don’t think that means giving up comfort. If anything, becoming a mom has made me much better at figuring out what is actually worth wearing. I want comfortable denim. I want oversized tees. I want sneakers I can walk in. I want skirts that move with me and bags that leave my hands free. I want outfits that can handle a coffee run, Target, sitting at my laptop, carrying a toddler and school pickup without requiring a wardrobe change.
I just want those things to feel like me too.
That’s what I’ve been figuring out lately: my style doesn’t need to look the way it did before kids to still be mine. I can like different things now. I can care more about comfort. I can repeat the same shirt three different ways. I can wear sneakers constantly. I can put on the skirt on a random weekday instead of waiting for somewhere special to wear it.
There is something surprisingly nice about putting a little effort into yourself on an otherwise completely ordinary day. It doesn’t magically make the laundry disappear or make everyone get into the car on time, but sometimes catching yourself in the mirror and thinking, Okay, I actually really like this outfit, is enough to make you feel a little more put together.
And maybe that’s why this feels connected to the season I’m in right now.
I’ve been talking a lot about getting back to me, but I’m realizing more and more that it isn’t one giant transformation. It’s a bunch of really small things. Taking care of myself. Finding things I enjoy. Making time for myself without feeling guilty about it. Wearing clothes that fit instead of punishing myself with clothes that don’t. Getting dressed because I want to, even if the most exciting place I’m going is the elementary school pickup line.
None of it is groundbreaking. But it matters to me.
So this is officially my excuse to keep documenting the outfits I actually wear between drop-off and pickup. Some weeks might be cute skirts and jeans. Some weeks might be an impressive rotation of oversized T-shirts and biker shorts. That’s kind of what makes it fun. I don’t want this to be about creating outfits specifically for Instagram. I want Instagram to get a glimpse of what I’m actually wearing in real life.
I’ll be sharing this week’s full lineup over on Instagram, and once the post is live, I’ll link it right here so you can see all of the outfits together.
For now, I’m just enjoying getting dressed again — for the body I have, the season I’m in and the very normal life I’m lucky enough to be living.
Turns out school pickup is as good an occasion as any.