What do you wish you had known about motherhood before you became a mom? We posed the question to Colorado Parent readers and received responses ranging from practical to sentimental to downright funny. You’ll find some of the responses here, and we’re sure you can relate to some of these moms.

We think the motherly wisdom our readers shared will also help out any new and expecting moms perusing the pages of our Everything Baby guide, which starts on page 29. Moms have a knack for nurturing. This sharing of hard-learned lessons mobilizes that gift and supports the women just entering the life-altering realm of motherhood.

Local writer and mom Saralyn Ward shares some of her own big lessons from raising her little ones in the article, “The Truth About Motherhood“.

“It would have been nice to know that the picture-perfect image of motherhood we aspire to is nothing but an illusion,” she says. Indeed, the pressure that we add to our own lives by reaching for an unattainable goal of perfection is driving many women to total burnout.

It’s easy to make jokes and gloss over the serious nature of motherhood stress. But, “mommy burnout” is more than just a catchphrase or social media hashtag. Severely stressed and exhausted mothers are pushing into an unhealthy realm of “complete and total overwhelm,” says Dr. Sheryl Ziegler, a Denver-based psychotherapist and author of Mommy Burnout: How to Reclaim Your Life and Raise Healthier Children in the Process. In our article, Ziegler shares her tips for identifying if you are on the path to burnout and offers tips for preventing and taking care of it before it begins to affect your whole family.

Our ideas to relieve some stress this month? How about curating a lovely gift box for yourself or your own mom, or simply enjoying any of the local events with the little souls that ushered you into the perfectly imperfect world of motherhood.