A mom was shocked I actually cared about what her experience was like rather than her babies.

I was out with my partner the other day, hiking a popular trail. I’ve seen many mothers and fathers along the way with young kids and babies and logically my brain started wondering how early could I be out doing these things post delivery. Once we got to the waterfalls I saw a family of 5, mom, dad, two boys between ages of 3-5, and an infant. I just had to ask these questions, so I started by asking “how long did you wait to start going on hikes,” the mother replied “these two (pointing at the boys) I started taking around 2 years old.” I didn’t quite get the answer I wanted, so I asked more specifically “that’s wonderful, and what about yourself, when did you feel good enough to take your infant?” The shock on her face instantly warmed my heart, she was so surprised that anyone asked about how she felt instead of the kids. We ended up chitchatting for a bit longer and then went our separate ways. This happened recently, but will stick with me for life. I will be asking more mothers about themselves, they already get plenty of questions about their babies, but get overlooked in the process.