The standard mom wardrobe is believed to be stretch pants and a dirty t-shirt she may have been wearing the day before. We are unshowered, unrested, stained and crusted with spit up and applesauce and forlorn lost blobs of gum. We eat cookies out of plastic bags when our kids are not looking and drink wine a little too early in the afternoon evening some days. I would like to protest this basket case of maternal endeavor is a myth, alas she is not. Many of us mamas have some form of her staggering through our days.

I’m not a particularly polished woman. If I clean up and sparkle a bit you will notice because it isn’t my standard m.o. Although I do not wear the ubiquitous mom ponytail, two bobby pins and a hair clip is a close second! I admire those polished women, but I am not going to be there any time soon. I am too tired, too focused on other things. Only my hubby and two small kidlets see me any given day, so why should I bother?

The parenting magazines suggest that fixing our hair and wearing an actual outfit buoys our love life. They suggest that a coat of mascara will show him you are really trying. (Frankly, my husband should know I am trying if my kids are alive at the end of a day and dishes piled on the counter proved we all ate something.) Doing something for someone else is not as effective as doing it for ourselves. I strongly believe us mamas need to add sparkle to our day simply for us. To answer my own question: I should ‘bother’ for me!

There are tons of mommy blogs focusing on fashion for us folks because we need and want them! Some I have found helpful as I have bumbled out of Birkenstocks with jeans and into peep toe leopard flats (sometimes…sometimes….) are Smart Mom Style, Kathy Friend and Ain’t No Mom Jeans. They cover more than just “on your body” style; they approach style as an essence of daily life.

Personally, my biggest fashion coup as a mama is quick dry nail polish. I feel like I made an effort when I didn’t. (And when it starts to chip ten minutes after I have applied it I don’t feel like I wasted an hour.) Another fashion ‘do’ for me is wearing red lipstick. Perhaps it is more appropriate for a night out, but wearing it for daily oomph makes me feel more bombshell and less bombed out mama. Even if I am just cleaning pee off the bathroom floor.

Just bother.

And please share in the comments: What have you discovered to help us reclaim our inner bombshells?

Want to see more of Heather? Her personal blog is Live Your Life Out Loud.