Skylar Diggins-Smith hilariously sums up being a mother and pro athlete with 3-word meme caption

Skylar Diggins-Smith is among the WNBA’s moms, and on Thursday, she humorously reflected on the challenge of balancing motherhood with life as a professional athlete.

Taking to her Instagram Stories, she posted a meme about how kids seemingly do not care when their moms need to rest.

The meme depicted a mother saying she was exhausted and needed to relax, only for the kids to respond using the iconic Stephen A. Smith clip:

“I’m here to tell you right now, we don’t care. We dont care.”

Skylar Diggins-Smith captioned the meme, drawing a connection to her life as an athlete.

“Me after practice,” she said.

Skylar Diggins-Smith hilariously sums up being a mother and pro athlete with 3-word meme caption

Diggins-Smith shares two children with her husband, Daniel Smith—a son and a daughter.

She missed the 2019 WNBA season after giving birth to her son, Seven, in April 2019. Just nine weeks postpartum, she was back at practice, balancing the demands of professional basketball and motherhood.

In October 2022, she announced she was expecting her second child and later gave birth to her daughter in early 2023, taking the 2023 season off for maternity leave.

Skylar Diggins-Smith dealt with postpartum depression

Following the birth of her fiist child, Skylar Diggins-Smith experienced postpartum depression, leading her to sit out the 2019 season — which would have been her fourth year with the Dallas Wings.

Speaking with FIBA, she described the overwhelming emotional toll of navigating motherhood and pro sports.

“It's just something you can't explain,” she said. “I was just going through a lot of emotions. I wanted to stay with my baby. I wanted to stay with my baby 24/7. It was hard for me to go to practice for five and six hours.”

Breastfeeding her son added another layer of difficulty.

“I'm breastfeeding my baby, so it was hard for me to leave, and I needed to pump, and I needed to feed my baby. Sometimes you're emotional, you cry. I would cry, I would be tired, and I didn't know why."

"Sometimes I wouldn't eat for two or three days. And you don't sleep, you don't get any sleep. It was just constant worrying, fear, just scared, making sure my baby was OK.”

She also pointed out how the male-dominated basketball industry made it harder to get the support she needed.

“There's a lot of men that I'm talking to in the organization so, I don't really think they understood. And I don't even think I knew all, what I needed, because I didn't know what I was going through, this was my first time.”

“I think that we don't really have a system in place for post-partum depression. Mental health is sensitive, it’s private. I didn't want to tell everybody what I was going through. So, I had to leave the team so I could take care of my baby and be with my baby.”

After returning to the court, Diggins-Smith joined the Phoenix Mercury, earning two All-Star selections and being named to an All-WNBA Team in each season with the franchise.