The Mom in the Mirror

Would all the perfect mothers please stand up. Are you standing?

 Yea. Me neither.

Don’t we all strive to be the best moms we can be? We try to do it all. Society has convinced us that we are not good enough unless we have the perfect children, are in perfect shape, dress like a magazine model, decorate like Martha Stewart, cook like Betty Crocker, participate in all these extra-curricular activities, and the list could keep going. Does it make us imperfect if we “fail” in one of these areas?

Our brains have been conditioned to constantly criticize that person looking back at us in the mirror. Let’s cut ourselves a break and be realistic for a minute.

I read an article recently that discussed how women need to stop judging each other and just tell a fellow mom “good job” once in a while. It encouraged us moms to reach out to the mother you see struggling in the grocery store or in church with a wild toddler instead of judging them.  Isn’t it time we do the same thing to ourselves? It’s easy to look at all our failures and all the things we don’t get done in the day, but let’s cut ourselves a break. It’s impossible to get it all done. That’s one of the joys about being a mother—we are always needed. Even when our kids are grown and gone we will be needed.

I’ve said it many times before, being a mother is the hardest job in the world. You can feel so completely worthless and wonderful all in one day. There are no pay days or raises. We just do what we do. Then we go to bed (sometimes with one or two children squeezing in bed with us) wake up and do it all over again. It is an endless job. An endless passion. An endless vocation.

So instead of knocking ourselves down because we aren’t perfect, let’s stand up, look ourselves straight in the mirror, and remind that person of how good of a job they really are doing. Then ignore some of that housework and go play with your kids, or read them a book, or color a picture with them, make a mud pie—because at the end of the day isn’t that what you want your kid to remember??