mom confessions

I received this cup from a friend of mine who owns a custom order craft shop, RaeAnn Crafts. She has all sorts of cool stuff she can do from t-shirts to engravings. You should really check her out. I have had this cup for awhile now, and it still looks like new (even with a few trips through the dishwasher). Ashley does great work!

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But the saying on it makes me think every day about the job I am doing as a mom. It is a positive reinforcement that even though I may have an “okay” moment, there are so many more moments where I can love and cherish the opportunity to raise this little man (and soon to be young lady). It’s a reminder that “I’ve got this.” And there isn’t a need to be perfect all the time.

It’s ok to be the okayest.

Here are just some of my okayest moments.

George knows the exit we turn for McDonald’s. He will start singing nuggets and french fries when we pull off the highway here before we even get to the Golden Arches. While Tom was on the night shift, we may have gone there a lot…This mama loves her own happy meal and no cooking. I have no shame in this game.
I sometimes will skip pages in books when I read them to George. We are at the stage where we read about a billion books before bed. “More books?” he says. I love that he is a reader, but that is a billion plus pages before I get my only introvert time for the day. Selfish maybe, but in my defense we are still reading a lot of pages each night.
I will own it. We use the TV sometimes to keep George out of trouble so we can do other things. Paw Patrol and Finding Nemo are very good distractions when someone gets up at 5 am on the weekends.
I keep a supply of suckers in my bag to bribe George when we are out in public. I can generally tell when we are on the verge of a melt-down, so the suckers help keep the tantrums at bay before George even has time to misbehave. (I don’t use these all the time, but sometimes you have to survive instead of thrive.)
He eats breakfast in the car. I don’t have time/energy to make a big breakfast or deal with arguing with a two year old why he must sit at a table to eat before we leave in the morning. So he gets his milk and breakfast “cookies” (granola bars) in the car.

I have my good moments too, but I don’t think that there needs to be this mentality that I am the perfect mom. George is loved and cared for and fed (mostly) healthy meals. Most of all we have a good time together like this weekend when we played matching games for hours on end. Or the smiles he had when the tables turned and he coached me while I was going to the bathroom and praised me for a job well done. I must be doing something right.

What are your “okayest” moments?

I think we always share our highlight reels on social media. I have been wanting to share the not so glamorous parts that most people won’t admit online. This confession link-up gave me the push to actually post it.

So here are some of my mom confessions.

George is the worst nap taker and refuses to take naps at home. And there is no transferring him from the car-seat or your arms without waking him up. So if he falls asleep in his car-seat while we are out, I will leave him in the car-seat until he wakes up. There have been some times where he stays in his car seat for more than 30 minutes once we get home.

When I am driving and can’t find his pacy because well I am driving, I have put my finger in his mouth to calm him down. You do what you have to do sometimes.

I unintentionally may have flashed my entire office a couple weeks ago while I was pumping. I have blinds on my window, and I was all hooked up with boobs out when I noticed I forgot to shut them. MORTIFIED. My office is the kind though that someone would have kindly sent me a message reminding me to shut them. So I don’t think anyone saw anything, but I am still embarrassed that someone may have. Seriously my heart is pounding just thinking about it even though it was a couple weeks ago.

Speaking of forgetting things, every single day I think I forget to shut the garage door. Almost daily I have to circle the neighborhood to make sure that I closed it. Not once have I actually forgotten, but every day I am terrified once I get out of my neighborhood that I did. Just this morning I had to circle; and even after checking the second time out of the neighborhood, I still thought I may have forgotten.

The only songs I know without music are “The Star Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” and “Amazing Grace.” These are the only songs I sing when I rock George to sleep. So yes my kid falls asleep to the national anthem every night.