I mom. I work. I wife. I school. I bake. Not necessarily in that order. But, I don’t clean (often). I don’t laundry (at least not often enough). I don’t cook (every night). In other words, I don’t do it all and sometimes, I don’t do what I do well enough to qualify as doing it. Shit happens, I miss deadlines. I miss assignments. I have to ask my husband to get up to give the baby a bottle of pumped milk. So, next time you feel the need to tell me “wow, you must be so busy! How do you do it?” please know that the answer is simple … I don’t. My husband does.
That’s right, I don’t do it all. Not even close. Not even a little. And I don’t think I am alone in this. I’ve met a few Super Moms, but even Super Moms have someone or a few someones they can lean on for support now and then. Or, even someone to fill in so we can escape for some alone time … because alone time is insanely important to maintaining your mom sanity. Remember that Super Moms, because without sanity your cape gets a bit tattered.
Another thing that weathers your cape? Thinking you can do it all and that you have to do it all perfectly. Your family doesn’t need perfection, they need happiness and safety. You know what your family also needs? Failure. There I said it. We need to fail once in a while and we need to teach our kids that it is okay to fail. Why? Because we have to learn lessons and we have to fall flat on our face so we can truly know when and how to celebrate the wins. When we teach our kids that it is perfectly fine to not be perfect, we are teaching them to love themselves and to embrace their flaws, and that is a wonderful thing.
So Moms, stop beating yourselves up for bringing Oreos to the bake sale or for calling it a day and having PB&Js for dinner. It doesn’t mean you don’t love your family and it doesn’t make you a terrible mother. It makes you the perfectly imperfect mom that your family needs … because all they need is you.
Most importantly? Never, ever be afraid to ask for help.