Dear Moms: There’s a Taylor Swift Song for That

Ever since I heard a young Taylor Swift sing “Tim McGraw” back in 2006, I knew that Taylor had my number. Even though I’m old enough to be her, *ahem* older sister, Swift’s catchy songs (she writes or co-writes nearly all of them), her likability, and her genuine capacity to connect to the experience of people everywhere drew me in.

And then I became a wife and a mom. Can Taylor still be there for me? I thought. Of course she can! So she’s out dating Jake Gyllenhaal and I’m recovering from a c-section and trying to chase a toddler. We still have so much in common, right, T? Yes, moms, there’s a Taylor Swift song for that.

So here are 20 motherhood situations where the titles to Taylor Swift’s songs are the definitive answer.

1. Your kids ask how you met Daddy: “Love Story”
2. Your kids ask about the wedding: “Today Was a Fairytale”
3. You’re holding a positive pregnancy test: “Blank Space”
4. Meeting your newborn baby or adopted child for the first time: “You Belong with Me”
5. A much needed post-baby GNO where you go home at 9:30pm: “22”
6. You’re holding another positive pregnancy test: “Crazier”
7. The toddler is learning to walk: “Fearless”
8. The 2yo is learning to share: “Mine”
9. The playground becomes the most fun place in the world: “Jump Then Fall”
10. The kids write on the wall with crayons and markers: “You’re Not Sorry”
11. The first tumble from a bike: “Bad Blood”
12. That kid on the playground bites your kid: “I Knew You Were Trouble”
13. That kid’s mom does nothing about it: “Should’ve Said No”
14. Your kid won’t tell you where he hid your cell phone and car keys: “Speak Now”
15. You’re holding yet another positive pregnancy test: “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
16. The other girls on the playground aren’t nice to your daughter: “Mean”
17. Looking at your latest family pictures: “Ours”
18. You watch your kids growing up all too quickly: “Never Grow Up”
19. You recognize that motherhood is the most amazing journey: “Everything Has Changed”
20. And the number one best advice Taylor Swift can give to moms: “Shake It Off”

No, all Taylor Swift songs can’t fit easily into motherhood…but we were all Taylor once (minus the gajillions of dollars and sold out arenas, of course). Some dumb boy broke our hearts. Girls were mean to us, and we didn’t understand why. Love made us feel like we could fly. Something made us so angry that only music could make it better.

And then we were moms, and with motherhood, some of that stuff went away, and a lot of it changed our lives and our perspective. The haters will always hate, but that’s okay. We have children who will always be “Ours.”