Mom-fessions

As a Mommy Blogger, I find it easy to write about positive experiences. I can go on and on about the brilliant things my children do, the daily stuff that makes me smile, and the fun adventures we go on together. It's a lot harder to write about the not so positive stuff. I tend to filter what I write so as not to come across whiny or complainy. I also fear being judged, because lets face it Moms are often too quick to judge each other. (A sad fact, and one I will discuss in length in another post. Lets support each other moms!)

I recently discovered Truthful Mommy's blog, The Truth About Motherhood. She writes candidly about all aspects of motherhood, good and bad. Her openness and honesty are refreshing to read. It's so easy to relate to her, because lets face it, not one of us is perfect. We all make mistakes, and do things that make ourselves cringe. One of Truthful Mommy's posts is a "how-to" guide on growing your blog. She writes about how she looks for honesty when reading mom blogs. She wants to feel a sense of community, to know that she isn't the only one whose children behave a certain way, or refuse to eat certain foods, or never sleep at night. Reading her words inspired me to think about some of my less-than-stellar mom moments, and create a list of "mom-fessions." These are things that I or my kids do (or don't do) in our daily life that I'm not necessarily proud of, but that i'm sure plenty of other moms can relate to.

-Stephanie watches TV. She's not two, which makes this a big no-no, according to the AAP. But first thing in the morning, she catches some Elmo while drinking her milk, which often turns into an episode of Sid the Science Kid, and then Word World. When Joseph feeds in the afternoon, I pop a video in the DVD player so that she'll stay in the living room with me and be less likely to cause all sorts of trouble in the rest of the apartment.

-Joseph is such a mellow baby that I sometimes leave him in the swing for too long. He doesn't mind, and is happy and giggly, but I feel bad that i'm not interacting with him. It doesn't stop me from doing it again the next day though.

-Since Stephanie is such a fantastic eater, I feel like I should always give her healthy options at mealtime. However, I too often resort to chicken nuggets, frozen pizza, boxed mac & cheese, and hotdogs.

-We don't listen to kid music in the car. Ever. My radio is permanently tuned to the local top-40 station, and my kid can sing along with Adele, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, and Justin Beiber.

-Days go by before I remember that Joseph is supposed to be getting daily tummy time. I resolve to give him at least 15 minutes a day. This usually lasts...one day. And then several more go by and I make the resolution yet again. The cycle continues.

-I take advantage of the fact that Stephanie won't get out of bed until I go in and get her. There are mornings when she sings and plays and calls for me to come get her, but I take one (or three) last, leisurely sips of my hot coffee before getting her up.

-I often scroll through Facebook and Twitter while Stephanie and I are playing. I also do it while feeding Joseph. I mean, there's only so much eye contact you can make with a baby before even he gets bored and looks away.

-I know it's developmentally appropriate for toddlers to latch onto one book and want to hear it over and over again. But I tell you, sometimes I think I might throw Brown Bear, Brown Bear in the trash if I have to read it one more time, so I make Stephanie choose a different book instead.

-Neither of my kids sleep through the night. Stephanie wakes up at least once on most nights, and I go in to her, find her pacifier and put her sleep sheep back on. Joseph wakes up A LOT, often every hour. (He's had a cold for a month, and is teething, so who knows whether he would sleep longer if those factors weren't involved.) Instead of letting him fuss and put himself back to sleep, I put the pacifier back in and rub his belly. I have never been able to do "cry-it-out."

-Stephanie still has her pacifier, and I have no intentions whatsoever of weaning her anytime soon.


This is only a small sampling of the things that I do that i'm not proud of. I hate admitting them, but you know what? I'm glad I did, because there might be a mommy out there who feels horrible about doing one of these things, and hopefully reading this post will make her feel better about herself. We moms sometimes need to do anything we can to get through our days. Parenting is hard work. It's a 24-hour, 7 days a week job, regardless of whether you work in the home or out of it. So instead of feeling ashamed, we need to celebrate the fact that our kids are healthy and happy. I encourage all of my readers to share one of your own "mom-fessions!"

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