By Hannah Schenker
When Dutch blogger Corinne de Vries became pregnant with her first child, she entered a strange new world, “where people used words I didn’t knew, where my body changed and where – all of a sudden – I got to take care of a very dependent human being. Whereas before all of this I couldn’t even take care of a house plant…”
She wanted to express the new, strange, weird, gross and surprising things a new mother experiences. While some things she could explore in blog posts, she felt that other things were better expressed in pictures – but as she says, “unfortunately I cannot draw”. So she reached out and was put in touch with artist Ingebritt ter Veld, who at that time was also pregnant, and the two connected. When Ingebritt’s daughter Juun was a couple of months old, they began chatting about all their new experiences, which Ingebritt turned into these very funny and very apt cartoons.
“For us, talking to each other, it was really comforting to know that the things we’ve experienced aren’t weird, but that every mother has had those experiences. We hope other parents will recognize the situations and that they’ll know we all have the same struggles. It’s good to know you’re not the only one dealing with things like sleep deprivation, hair loss or leaking breasts. That makes it easier to accept it and to talk about it: you don’t have to be ashamed about something that’s actually very normal. And humor is always a very good way of dealing with something difficult or something weird. It helps to see these things in perspective.”
We are sure you can relate to some, if not all of these situations, so scroll on to have a giggle!
