I once had a friend tell me that when you become a mom, you develop a whole new sense of self, and that sense is a selfless you never knew existed. I found this hard to believe as I didn’t think it was possibly for me to realize sacrifice my own little indulgences for someone else. Don’t get me wrong, I did give up material things from time to time for my husband, but he always reciprocated with something to replace what I had given up. I never gave to him in the hopes to get something in return. I gave to him because I love him and want to spend money on him. On Monday, I experienced something I didn’t think was possible a whole new level of selflessness that I never thought possible.

Memorial Day weekend is usually pretty action packed with parties, boats and lakes, fireworks, barbeques and if you’re living in South Carolina with me, a little event known as Freedom Weekend Aloft which is an action packed festival complete with live music, carnival rides and hot air balloons. Memorial Day is also the unofficial start of summer and also the weekend of some of the best deals in shopping to rival those of Black Friday. My Memorial Day weekend found my husband and me making the long trip to Rochester, NY to visit my in-laws as they hosted a baby shower for us. On the way back, we decided to actually stop on Monday at the outlet stores in order to do a little shopping.

Initially, we were just going to go into the Pottery Barn outlet as I was looking for additional little finds for Davey’s room. What we ended up doing wasn’t exactly part of the plan, but like a moth drawn to a flame, I was pulled into the sidewalk sales outside of all of the children’s clothing stores. I found myself bypassing the Coach and Ann Taylor outlet stores and hightailing it over to Osh Kosh B’Gosh and their 70% off clearance racks. I even managed to buy swimming trunks for Davey, but obviously they will be for use next year. It doesn’t hurt to get a head start, does it? After leaving one outlet store, we went to another and bought more clothing. My child now has more clothes than I do and here’s the thing….I loved shopping for him. I was able to fulfill two desires, my need to shop and my need to not feel guilty about it. In less than a half an hour, I did more damage to my husband’s MasterCard then what I could do in an hour at Banana Republic! I love this. I used to spend hours shopping for myself, hemming and hawing about whether I needed this outfit or that accessory. With Davey, I don’t even think that way; I just see it and automatically think….my son needs this!

I don’t think I’m using my son to feed an addiction, but others may disagree. Either way, I’m serving two purposes….keeping my happiness and sanity while also providing for my son. My husband may roll his eyes at this, he rolls his eyes at everything I do these days, but it makes me feel good and these days I need every little bit of reassurance that I’m not a bad person (pregnancy hormones taking advantage of me) and that I’m a totally selfless mom.