Super Moms are ruining my life.
Okay, well not directly. For a while, though, I felt that way. I had been feeling very inadequate because my parenting skills are not up to what could be considered awesome Pinterest mom standards. Years of comparing myself to these modern-day super heroes was taking its toll. Yearning to elevate myself into the realm of the Super Mom, I researched. After reading some books about parenting and perusing social media, I had realized that I would need to make changes in all areas in order to be on the track to what I will call "Perfect Parenting". Ugh. "Perfect Parenting" (or "PP" for short) is the term I will use to describe society's vision of what parenting should look like (refer to any Super Mom Instagram account for illustration). PP looks like this: A happy-all-the-time, organized mom who has always well-behaved children who she does perfectly planned (and educational) family activities with each day in her beautiful, clean home. This mom prepares three nutritious, balanced meals (plus two healthy snacks) daily that her children will eat. She has no trouble balancing kids, work, home and personal hygiene. She definitely does not break any of the big parenting rules, like "Don't bribe your child to get them to eat" or "Whatever you do - don't let them sleep in your bed" (gasp). It's all so...well...perfect. "Not Perfect Parenting" (or "NPP") better describes my situation. I find myself breaking the above-stated rules (and more) daily. Every mealtime includes negotiations to get the next bite down ("Eat this bite and we will Facetime Grandma/MomMom/President of the United States to tell them the news!" or "Do you want M&M's? Then eat this!"). My now 5-year-old slept in our bed for years until she got her "big girl bed" this past summer (and now we sleep part of every night in her room). Requests to watch more television are more often than not granted in order to give Mommy some downtime (yes, my daughter can name all the characters on The Big Bang Theory and has partial movie scripts memorized). Super Moms around the world are shaking their heads in disgust just reading this.I now feel confident in saying that what is important is this - my children are safe, they have fun, and they are loved to the moon and back. They are happy. And truly, so am IDespite all this, I recently realized something else. I'm not quite sure how or why; I just had an epiphany one day. Yeah, I practice NPP. But you know what - it's okay. Maybe my house is not spotless (far from it). I admit I gave my daughter cake for dinner on Tuesday (she loved it). I don't have daily Arts and Crafts sessions (they are for special occasions). I make mistakes. A lot of them. It's okay that I'm not perfect, because who really is, anyway? I now feel confident in saying that what is important is this - my children are safe, they have fun, and they are loved to the moon and back. They are happy. And truly, so am I.
ParentCo.
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