Tess Holliday Shares Candid Photo of Herself in Tears: ‘This Is the Reality of Being a Mom’

Tess Holliday Shares Candid Photo of Herself in Tears: ‘This Is the Reality of Being a Mom’

Tess Holliday is getting honest about the difficulties that come with being a working mom.

The model and body-positivity activist gave her followers an extremely honest glimpse into her life as of late with an Instagram selfie Sunday, showing tears streaming down her face.

“This is the reality of being a mom. I’ve been up since 3 am, & every time I get Bowie to sleep & try to lay him down, he wakes up,” she captioned the snap, referring to her 8-month-old son with fiancé Nick Holliday.

“He is teething & has no clue I have to work today, & most days I can work 15 hour days, take care of both boys & put some lipstick on & deal with it,” continues Holliday, 31, who is also mom to son Rylee, 11. “Most days I drink my coffee & smile at every little thing he does thinking it’s the best thing in the world, but not today.”

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“I’ve reached my limit, exceeded it to be honest,” she continues. “My confidence has taken a blow with this birth & it wasn’t until this morning I realized why.”

Holliday admits she’s been “crying for nearly two hours, & I’m crying as I write this,” touching on the difficulties of finding the balance as a working mother.

“The pressure of ‘looking good’ for a living is too much today,” she explains. “When your face is breaking out from the hormones of breastfeeding + total exhaustion from lack of sleep, bags under your eyes, patchy red skin & to top it off no energy to work out or leave my bed.”

“How do you do it? How do you feel confident in your skin & feel like you aren’t letting the client down by showing up exhausted & disheveled?” she asks her followers.

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“As a working mom in an industry that’s as critical as mine, where is the line? The balance? The compassion? Is any career understanding when you show up at negative 10% because your kids wouldn’t let you sleep & you want to hide under your covers & cry? Not many,” adds Holliday.

She goes on to point out that the pressures of being “perfect” as a mom are a huge culprit, and that she is all for women being honest and supportive with each other while recognizing that although mothers may be superheroes in a sense, they’re still only human.

“I hope one day that changes & society views mothers as the flawed human beings we are that are just trying to keep our shit together like everyone else. #effyourbeautystandards #workingmoms #disruptperfectmomsyndrome.”