I am part of the problem.
Motherhood is messy. It is messy, and hard and not for the faint of heart. Yet, this isn’t a side that we usually see.
Behind all the pristine photos of sunny Saturday breakfasts, art projects and crafts gone right is, most likely, a fight about how you have to eat something other than just the chocolate chips on your pancakes, or no you can’t put glue directly on the table.
But, we never see this.
We are made to believe that all children are perfect, all houses are spotless and every party and gift giving occasion is Pinterest worthy.
Well, the jig is up.
I am here to tell you that it is hard and that we need to start cutting ourselves so slack when it comes to parenting.
For example, in the photo above, we were having a melt down because we wanted to drive a blue Corvette because we felt it was our size.
This photo, we didn’t want to take at all. We were tired and just didn’t want to have our picture taken.
Did I post these photos on the corresponding blog posts? No. Just like everyone else, I choose to forget the bad and remember the good.
And you know what? It’s OK to show the difficult side of family life.
It’s OK to have a cranky kid sometimes. It’s OK if they end up coated in chocolate. It’s OK if a craft doesn’t turn out the way you hoped it would.
The only thing that isn’t OK is if you feel like you never measure up to other parents.
Everyone’s parenting journey is different. Some have more bumps in the road than others, but everyone has their fair share of struggles.
So you never have to feel like everyone else has it together while you are worn down negotiating with your toddler about bedtimes and wishing you could just lock yourself in the closet with a bag of Doritos just to have five minutes of peace.
Because behind every sunshine smile of a little one is a nervous Mom or Dad just praying that they could get just one photo to capture this beautiful memory to hold on to when the days are long and the houses are messy.
Mousekatots 