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The other day I was reading some articles online all about this concept of “mom fail” or mom failure. I decided to peruse Facebook to see what I could find there and to my utter disappointment, I discovered over 86K posts about mom fails.
Countless women posted their shortcomings for the world to see. Everything from an epic meltdown to failure to remember the kids piano lessons.
All over the internet mothers were beating themselves up because they weren’t perfect. The self-deprecating comments were sometimes hard to read because I understood the struggle.
But the more I read, the more pissed off I felt.
Not at the moms, but at the notion of a society that somehow believes if you forget a swim lesson or forget the cupcakes for a birthday party this somehow makes you a bad person or worse a bad mother.
Listen up moms!
Nothing – and I do mean nothing – could be further from the truth.
Parenting is a tough job. The hardest out there and for many of you, you’re not only juggling motherhood but being a wife, homemaker or even trying to work full or part time outside or inside the home. The demands are endless, and they don’t let up. Well not until your littlest one is all grown up and off on their own. And sometimes it never ends.
Instead of a society where #momfail is the hashtag, and we post our shortcomings, what about a hashtag like #momwins where we celebrate the fact we showed up and did the best we could every day for our children and families?
I’m happy to report there is such a hashtag and although there are a lot of posts why aren’t we talking about the wins instead of the losses?
Of course, this weekend being mother’s day is a fabulous time to be celebrating mothers, I mean that’s why Hallmark invented the holiday. But honestly and all kidding aside, we need to do a better job of celebrating moms every day!
So my challenge for you this week is first to ease up on yourself and kick the notion of perfection to the curb.
My mom wasn’t perfect; I certainly wasn’t a perfect mom and neither will my daughter. You’re going to make mistakes, and the best you can hope for is to learn from them, grow and move on.
Second, enjoy yourself this Mother’s Day.
And lastly, each day at the end of the day, don’t think about what you did wrong but instead think of all the ways you were there for your kids and family. Think about all the good you did, love you gave and time you spent with your children.
In the end, that’s what you’re kids will remember, not the time you forgot the cupcakes. (Well they might remember it, but trust me, it won’t matter in the big scheme of things.)
My mom won’t be here with me this year, and I can tell you I’m already thinking of all the ways she was a great mom. She wasn’t perfect, but she did the best she could and over the years I learned to appreciate her even more. I wish I could tell her this and only hope she knows how much she meant to me.
Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms!
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