Disclaimer: I absolutely love my children and love the life the the good Lord has given me. I am only writing this because I am tired of everyone (including myself) expecting moms to always be perfect. I am also tired of the comparison culture that we now live in.

Flashback to about 10 years ago. My husband and I had been married just a little over a year. We still had that newlywed smell running through our house on occasion. We both had good jobs and freedom to do whatever we wanted. We also had a grand total of zero kids. 10 years ago, Facebook was around, but really more of something you might check once a week or less. Pinterest was barely getting started and so many of the social media staples of today had not even been thought of yet. At that point of my life I sure thought I knew a lot. I remember getting rather irritated when I was at a restaurant next to misbehaving children. I would often lean over and tell my husband how if that was my kid they wouldn’t act like that.

Famous last words….

Here we are in the present day. I now have 3 children age 6 and under. Oh boy, I can’t even to begin to tell you how absolutely wrong I was. I want to personally apologize to every mom that I ever passed judgement on. Kids are tough, especially more than one. Let me tell ya, what works with the first child is pretty much guaranteed to not work with child number 2, and even if it works with the 2nd, it definitely won’t work with the 3rd. Just when you think you have something figured out with the parenting thing, something else will always arise.

Today I failed as a mom. I just want to be completely real, no false perfection about it. I did not do such a hot job as a mother today. Don’t get me wrong, just like all you other imperfect moms, I had good intentions starting out. However, by about 2 pm I started to crumble as quickly as my day. Three young kids is not an easy task, especially considering that all 3 of mine are girls (yes, lots of emotions rolling in this house). I started off the day trying to be creative. I would love to be able to take a walk alone in the morning, but that is absolutely impossible at this stage, so, I loaded up the girls in the stroller and told them we were going on an adventure. I even made a list of things they should look for (1 rabbit, 2 bugs, 3 pretty rocks, etc.) to make it a little more fun. I was pretty proud of myself and thought it would be a great idea.  It was…for about 10 minutes. That’s when the whining started and didn’t stop until well after we returned to the house (about 30 minutes later). I tried to take it in stride, didn’t get too angry and proceeded to make lunch.

As the day went on my optimism quickly started to fade as I cleaned the same messes, washes the same dishes, and did the same loads of laundry I had every day this summer, only to have all my work undone less than 5 minutes later. One of the hardest things about being a mom to young children is the non-stop neediness. Whether it is needing another snack, breaking up a fight, or even dealing with hurt feelings, there is always something that will derail your plans as well as any progress you might have made.  My house is almost always a disaster area and I can’t keep enough juices and snacks around at this point.  This continued throughout the day until I finally lost it with my girls. I have to be honest, this is definitely not the first time I have absolutely lost my cool, and I am sure it won’t be the last. When you are needed all day long every day and when you can rarely even use the bathroom without someone needing you, it is bound to catch up with you.

So, I am not here to proclaim my perfection, however, I would like to encourage other mommas in my same position. Don’t fake perfection. Let’s just get real about how difficult being a momma is! Let’s stop judging each other, and start encouraging each other. We are all in the trenches together.  All kids are occasionally bratty and it’s ok. They will grow up and I hear if we keep steering them in the right direction and cover them in tons of prayer that they will grow up one of these days. I also hear that we will miss these days. So, let’s try to enjoy some of it. It’s hard for me on those days when all I see is the mess. Lord, help us to see the beauty!!! Tomorrow is another day, and I pray that I will be more patient, understanding, and loving toward my girls.

I leave you with this reminder of God’s grace and love for us: