Most of the folks in our circle started out strong.

We wouldn’t sacrifice our personal style just because we were starting a family. Hell no! Just because we’d be parents didn’t mean we’d have to give up our sense of “cool.”

But, one by one, we’ve all slipped into family-dom. Some jumped in whole-heartedly, while others — like my husband and I — tried to hold on stubbornly to as much as we could.

Here are some flashing signals that you too may have sacrificed your personal style for “family-dom.” Some sacrifices are made for budget or safety, others for convenience or just plain sanity-sake. And some…well some are just plain unavoidable.

Your waist: The first to go for most of us females is our personal fashion sense. Once the pregnancy waddle kicked in full gear, I simply couldn’t avoid wearing clothes that normally I wouldn’t have been seen dead in. Although I tried with full might (and many dollars!) to keep a sense of style during my pregnancies, I admit that I could not avoid the dreaded tops with the ties at the back. Oh, how I hate those ties. But, oh, how hard it is to find maternity clothes without them!

You’ve pimped your ride: Did you stick one of those “Baby on Board” signs on your car’s rear window? Come on … you can tell me. I won’t laugh (okay, maybe just a little!).

Plastic is now home decor: Where you once may have had a red leather sofa as the centerpiece, you now have piles of plastic crap — I mean, toys – covering virtually every square inch of your living room. Yes, not only have you pimped your car, you’ve pimped your home too! (Perhaps I should contact the producers of the “Pimp my ride” television series and pitch a “Pimp my life” show?)

Your purse was a baby shower gift from Toys R Us: Did you grudgingly accept the fact when your baby was born that you’d have to trudge around town carrying a diaper bag? Sure, we all did. But now, tell me this: Has your child been out of diapers for a few years now? So why are you using it as your hand bag still? It’s okay, don’t cry. You’re not alone.

Your idea of a sports car is a mini-van with a mini soccer ball hanging from the rear-view mirror: Sure, they’re practical. No argument there. But did anyone ever grow up dreaming of owning a mini-van? And have you ever known someone under the age of 30 to own one?

Swiss Chalet is gourmet: Remember during your courtship how you two would dine in the latest restaurant du jour? You threw on an outfit at a moment’s notice (without ties at the back, dammit!) and wined and dined on new and interesting tastes. Now, it’s all relative to McDonalds. So Swiss Chalet is a gourmet treat!

Okay, this list could go on forever. At this point, you may be wondering what has started me on this little tirade. So, I’ll tell you. That’s right … I will publicly pronounce just how far we’ve slid. We’ve gone from the couple who did “real” camping — never “car camping”; EVER. We went out into the wilderness searching for locales where no other humans would be. Or had possibly ever been! But not anymore, my dear friends. We’ve sacrified our sense of outdoorsy cool at the altar of family.

We just bought one of these:

That’s right — a tent trailer. Have a little chuckle. It’s okay, I’ll forgive you.

Not only have we given up our “street cred” as “real” campers, we have it proudly popped-out in the driveway as a type this post.

Okay, it’s worse than that. My husband is sleeping out in the tent trailer — in the driveway — as I type this post! And this is his second night in a row doing so.  

And he’s not out there because he’s in the proverbial dog house – it’s because Stella and her friends are so darn excited with it that they’ve been begging for sleep-overs in it. So, although he may have sacrified his own personal sense of “cool,” hubby is definitely cool in the eyes of the under-eight set. And that’s got to count for something. Right? …. right?