How to Survive Life in the Suburbs

Good Mom’s Don’t Curse or Lose Their Cool? I’m Screwed.

in Everyday on

There is an urban legend in the Suburbs.  Good Moms are perfect.   They never:

Lose their tempers.

Curse under their breath.  (or sometimes really loudly when they think no one is listening)

Tell their kids to SHUSH!

Cry for no reason.

Allow dessert before dinner.  or instead of dinner

Let their kids play hours of Mine Craft on a Sunday afternoon just because it was the easy thing to do.

Give up on matching socks and settle for “cleanish” socks.

Forget the golden rule of “Pick your battles” and spend the entire weekend picking every fricken battle you can think of.

Enforce bedtime like a drill sergeant, not because it’s good for them, but because it’s good for you. 

Put every single person on the earth before themselves. 

Good Moms don’t sleep. (I’ve got this one down…not because I’m getting my June Cleaver on but because I’ve got wicked insomnia)

Guess this means, I am not a good Mom; but I am a real one. 

DGirlsAtTheFarm

I get tired, angry and sometimes feel a tad selfish.  I settle for clean clothes, not so much perfect outfits.  I live off coffee, which often results in the embarrassment of my girls as it leads to singing too loudly in the car with the windows rolled down, and dancing in the kitchen like a maniac.  I make my kids spend time with me when they don’t want to, and let them plug themselves in when I need a break.  I apologise when I need to, and hug my girls every chance I get.  I love those little people with all of my heart, and truly am trying to do my very best.  Sometimes, it’s hard.  Having a teenager in the house is making life challenging?  Exciting and fabulous, but raising this mini me is going to make the next few years…blog worthy.

The truth is my best may not look like everyone else’s best, and I am okay with that. 

For now I am just trying to get through the day….and be a real Mom.  One who loves fiercely, laughs easily and makes the most of every moment.  The years are suddenly flying by too quickly and I’m trying to savour every second.  Wish me luck.

Sending hugs to all the real Moms out there!  xo

    • Comments

    1. Oh my gosh, your littlest one looks just like you! You are three beautiful women.

      I always said if someone says being a parent is easy, they aren’t doing it right!

    2. I don’t there’s such a thing as a perfect mom, just as there is no way for there to be a perfect human. You only do your best with your best intentions. 🙂
      I think your kids will always appreciate (even if they may not show it) all the reasons you are their “real” mom over any other kind of mom.

    3. Yep, I am definitely not a “good” mom either!

      But you know what? I think the kids prefer the REAL mom. The one who loves them to pieces, screws up occasionally, and must ask for forgiveness every once in a while. If only, because that mom is the mom that is the one showing them what real life is all about.

    4. Love this post! I am real too. Losing my temper, unable to sleep over caffeinated and occasional extremely silly as in shopping at Masonville hollering down the hall to my Tweens: anybody need a new bra? Bwahahaha!

    6. Just the other day I said I was going to hell in a pretty little hand basket for laughing so hard I cried while my daughter was singing me a song she wrote. Terrible, terrible, rotten mom…..but human. I told her I had tears in my eyes because it was just so beautiful but someday I’ll tell her why, because while I’m not perfect I am raising my kids to have a sense of humour about themselves and others 🙂

    8. I think all those things make you a GREAT mom! It can’t always be about the kids. I’m a better mom when I get my “ME” time. And? I’m a firm believer moms need timeouts sometimes too. We’re human, not perfect!

    10. Love it, I am a REAL Mom too! Yes we take missteps here and there, but it’s all about getting back on track and doing better each and every day. Spending more time, saying I love you more, being a great example to our kids. We may lose our cool sometimes, but they’ll forgive us.

    11. I personally think you are pretty wonderful because you are not perfect.

      You’re real and that makes you inspirational.

      Truth be told, if your blog posts were bordering on Stepford wife material, I wouldn’t be following!

      Cheers to imperfection being OKAY 🙂

    13. Ahhh… love this! You know, whenever I think about being perfect, I always think back to a little nugget of wisdom a co-worker once shared with me:

      “Don’t strive for perfection. There was only one perfect being in the history of time and they crucified him for it. Instead, strive for excellence.”

      I think you are an excellent mom 🙂