Perfectly Imperfect

As any parent can probably tell you, raising children is not easy. I left the workforce a few months ago to stay at home with our toddler and newborn baby. For as long as I can remember, it was always my dream to be a stay-at-home mom. It just kind of seemed natural considering that is how I was raised, and my mom was raised before me. As a struggling, newly married couple, it seemed impossible that I would be able to stay at home full time. After many ups and downs, lots of prayers and a new job for my husband, we made the jump and I came home a few months before our daughter was born.

Let me tell you, it was NOT what I thought it was going to be. Don’t get me wrong, I would not trade it for anything in the world, but my idea of what a stay-at-home mom should be was completely wrong, to say the least. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner have never been made all in one day, nor does my husband come home to a spotless house every day. I don’t get to make star-shaped sandwiches for lunch and sometimes let Jagger have dessert before dinner just so he will eat. My reality is far from the glamorous “reality” of home life in movies and magazines.

In today’s world, it is so easy to get caught up in how things are “supposed” to be instead of what they truly are. To get caught up in what your children should eat, how you should raise them, what kind of wife you need to be, and the list goes on and on. I am not ashamed to say that it happened and still happens to me today.

We all have those days when you have cereal for breakfast and leftovers for lunch and dinner, there are dirty dishes in the sink and the laundry is piling up.  Those days, when the kids are screaming, the house is a mess and you just keep waiting for the break that doesn’t come, happen to us all. Well, I’m here to tell you, “DON’T GIVE UP! YOU ARE NOT ALONE!”

I have to remind myself daily that those are not the reasons I stay at home, my kids are. Yes, the house needs to be cleaned and the laundry finished but the nerf gun battle that I had with Jagger instead of folding the towels today, is far more precious. The few extra minutes I got to spend cheering on Hinley to roll over is what I will remember, not that I didn’t make enchiladas for dinner that night. These are the reasons I stay at home.  

The job of a stay-at-home mom is not to be a perfectionist and have everything completed in one day. The job of a stay-at-home mom is to do just that, stay at home and be a mom. To be a great mom is not to beat yourself up because everything didn’t get done today, it’s to be there for your kids and raise them to be great.

Remember that it’s ok to have those days, it’s ok to not be perfect.

Sincerely,

A Perfectly Imperfect Stay at Home Mom