Before I had kids I was the perfect mom. I knew exactly how to raise kids, how to have the best balance between friendship and authority, how to laugh and not stress, how to get my kids to listen and have the same opinions as I do, how to dress them so they would always look fashionable, and to top it all off my kids were never going to be the dirty ones. Then I had one.
Today in the world of online lives the pressure to display "the perfect family" is immense. Beautiful dinners, adorable smiles on fresh washed faces, fun family adventures where everyone is enjoying themselves, the best of the best and all on sunny days.
Are my kids the only ones to cut huge chunks of hair off the front of their head while I take a 3 minute shower? Am I the only one who has kids scream so terrifyingly loud when they are upset that my neighbors loiter on the edge of my yard scoping it out? Am I the only one who goes grocery shopping with a kid who has an unidentifiable substance permanently adhered from ear to ear? Not to mention only one shoe on? Or who has a kid who refuses to wear anything but a pair of rain boots and a pillow case cape for an entire summer? Is my house the only one that has children streaking out the front door and down the sidewalk butt naked? Am I the only one who's dinner burns because my 2 year old decided to wipe his older brothers poopy butt with the shower curtain and in the process contaminated the entire bathroom? How about pee in the sandbox? Poop on the kitchen table? A toilet full of whiffle balls? A mouth full of rabbit droppings? Permanent marker on the babies face? Boogers on the bathroom wall? My cell phone in the bottom of the garbage can? An entire jar of baby powder emptied into a box fan that was turned on high?
Well, maybe I am the only one. But that's o.k. with me. My family is perfect because they are mine. I am proud of our life together and the beautiful mess that it is.