People Magazine has another baby cover this week, but at least this time they didn’t Photoshop the baby into oblivion like they did with Christina Aguilera’s daughter Summer Rain. This cover features Kelly Clarkson and her first baby, daughter River Rose. River Rose is 8 months old, in case you’re thinking (as I did), “Whoa, that’s a big baby!” This isn’t a newborn! She’s 8 months old already. And this isn’t even River Rose’s public debut – Kelly has been posting baby photos on social media for months now. So why the cover? Because Kelly is ready to get back to work in a big way. She’s promoting her new album and the publicity seems very Motherhood Industrial Complex (no judgment, so many women do that these days). Some highlights from the People cover story:

Life changes after motherhood: “My whole life took a big 180. I never thought I was going to be a mom, so it’s very much changed my world in the most awesome way.”

She’s not just a pop star now: “I love what I do, but I feel like I relied on my career a lot for my self-worth. And now I’m more than that. I’m a mother and a wife and have this whole other thing going on.”

River is a happy girl: “[She is] the happiest baby on the planet.”

She’s at peace now: “I have a certain level of peace I didn’t know was going to come with it… My best friend always says, ‘You just want to create the family you never had.’ I might be doing that. In defense of my family, it happens. People fall out of love, and people go separate ways. People are human. I’ve accomplished a lot, but I guess the biggest success I want is that whenever I die people will say, ‘She was so successful as a mother, and as a wife.’ That’s kind of my big goal.”

[From People]

I don’t begrudge her the changes in her life and her happiness with motherhood and finding love and all that. I just wish some women would say, after having a baby, that while motherhod is great and everything, they really love their careers too. That their career is their baby too. But that’s not going to happen with a People Mag interview, is it? And I do think it’s good for Kelly that she’s spent the past eight months loving motherhood AND working on her new album.

Here are some pics of Kelly out in London last week:

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, cover courtesy of People.