Hip Mom Rule #10: Aromatherapy, Anyone?

I grew up with one brother and three sisters. Our house always smelled very sweet from an exhaustive amount of hairsprays (remember the 80's teased hair? That required a LOT of hairspray for four girls), gels, mousse, perfumes, and candles. We were all accomplished athletes, but we were careful to apply Teen Secret to our underarms and pretty smelling lotions to our newly shaved legs. You would never guess from walking into our home that we had just spend an accumulated 10 hours in the gym.

Now I live with a husband and two little boys. The sweet smells of lotions and perfumes have been replaced by the not-so-appealing smells of dirty diapers, dirty feet, and potty-training accidents.

One day the smell was so pungent that I searched for nearly an hour trying to find the source of the mysterious and ghastly smell. There had to be a dirty diaper hiding out someplace (especially since my very helpful 3-year-old is now starting to throw things away for me). After furtively searching room after room, I began to realize that the smell was not localized to any one space. The entire house smelled! Where were the calming, relaxing scents of days gone by?

I ran to the closet to dig out some hip, scented candles to help expel the smell. Not having used candles in the three years since my older son's birth, I found they had turned from hip candles into expensive pillars of odorless wax -- the aromatherapy having long ago disappeared.

So, I opened the windows, turned the ceiling fans to full power, changed into some hip mom jeans, packed up the kids, and headed to Target. I bought three new, very powerfully scented candles (in my favorite scents, of course). Then I sauntered over to the beauty section and picked out a new bottle of lotion that smelled like eucalyptus and not like new babies. Just because I have baby lotion on hand doesn't mean I have to use it!

When my husband arrived home from work later that day, he walked in and gave me a long kiss hello. "It smells so good in here! You smell so good!" he exclaimed.

Being a hip mother of two boys doesn't mean my house or I need to smell like boys, too. So think about those scents that helped define you earlier in life and reintroduce them to your new life as a hip mother. You might be surprised at how effective a little aromatherapy can be.


About the Author: Heidi Burns is a freelance writer, editor, and adjunct faculty member. She earned an M.A. from Iowa State University in 2002 and has since married, lived in three states, had two children, and adjuncted for four different colleges. Free time is elusive to her, but if she ever did find a spare moment, she would most likely take a long, uninterrupted nap. For more information and details, please contact Heidi A. Burns.