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"  Variations on a theme: This is my typical mom uniform of skinny stretch jeans, tall boots, and a machine washable top, usually with a stripe or print and a statement necklace to hide/distract from stains.  What&amp;#039;s that saying about walking a mile in one&amp;#039;s shoes? I&amp;#039;ve been writing a fashion advice blog for over seven years, longer than I&amp;#039;ve been a parent. Before I had my daughter Emerson, blog readers often contacted me asking for advice on how to be stylish moms. I would tell them that it&amp;#039;s as easy to throw on a refined merino v-neck sweater and pair of ponte trousers as it is to put on sweats or jeans and a stained tee. I&amp;#039;d say that you need to be a good example to your child, showing that you care about yourself and how you are perceived. Then, I had Emerson, which led to more than a year of feeling as though I was in a foreign body that looked, acted, and even smelled differently. There was more than a year of sleepless nights, and two and a half years of making my wardrobe work with breastfeeding. I tried to be a good employee at the office, a successful blogger, a caring mother, and a loving spouse while still giving my friends attention and seeing my mother at least once a month. It was only through my attempt to have it all that I finally understood why my fellow mothers would shuffle around the mall in scrunchies and their husband&amp;#039;s lacrosse shorts. Something has to give. I still believe in purchasing quality instead of quantity, and that it&amp;#039;s just as easy to purchase flattering colors as it is a logo tee or plain white shirt. However, I now have walked in a mother&amp;#039;s shoes, and I know they are very hard and exhausting shoes to fill. I have been that mom with the stained shirt, the hair in desperate need of a shower thrown up with a rubber band that was around the Sunday paper. And yes, I have even been that working mom who showed up at the office wearing two different shoes. No person can &amp;quot;have it all,&amp;quot; and you have to have priorities. Sometimes that priority is your child, and sometimes that priority is an extra 20 minutes of sleep. It doesn&amp;#039;t matter what your priorities are, and it&amp;#039;s important to remember that they are different than those of another woman.  That mother in the stretched-out, stained shirt may have thrown it on after having her child puke on the last two blouses; she might be trying to wrangle three children under the age of three on less than three hours of sleep; or maybe just because she just had to get the heck out of the house right then and there to maintain sanity. It&amp;#039;s so easy to judge, snark, or roll your eyes, but it&amp;#039;s just as easy to imagine yourself in her shoes, wishing you could do it all but only having time and energy for the top priorities in life. Imagine yourself in her shoes \u2014 try walking a mile in them before you pass judgment. You may just end up giving her a hug instead of rolling your eyes. Alison Gary has been writing Wardrobe Oxygen, a blog that offers tips and advice for all women to achieve personal style, regardless of age, figure, budget, or lifestyle, since 2005. She is mom to three-year-old Emerson. Photo courtesy of Alison Gary. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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