Life as a Mom: It Ain’t Easy Being Perfectly Imperfect

From the moment you find out you’re having a baby, you instantly go into baby mode. You have it in your mind that you’re going to be the perfect parent. You’re baby proofing the house, setting up a college fund at your bank, and buying all the cute outfits to dress your little one in, and the baby hasn’t even come yet!

Your family and friends certainly don’t discourage all of your baby mania! They throw you extravagant baby showers, with the most adorable decor. You now have adorable diaper cakes for your princess, and little cupcakes with crown toppers. All those gestures can really put pressure on you to be the perfect mom.

Everyone will definitely have helpful advice to give you, but you won’t truly know until you experience motherhood yourself, and the honest truth is, it ain’t easy…but that’s okay. If you think about it, is anything worth having ever easy? Not really, and your kiddo is definitely worth having, so don’t think it’s going to come easy.

As your kids grow older, you will grow as a parent as well, and learn so much.You’re going to experience bad times, but those bad times never outweigh the good. Let’s look at some aspects of how being a mom will challenge you to grow.

Homework

Homework is not the same now as it was when I was a kid. These days you need a calculator, computer, and Albert Einstein to get through assignments! Don’t feel bad about it though, because times really have changed, and our kids are growing up in a totally different world than we did.

Some moms have gotten to a point now where, if their child asks them for help with their homework, they’ll look at them like they know better! It can be a little saddening for some. As mothers, we’ve always been there for our children, fixing every problem they had.

Not being able to help your child with their homework can almost make you feel like that privilege is being taken away from you. Not only that, but just finding the time and energy to help them is an issue too. Nothing to beat yourself up over, but it’s just an area we need to improve within ourselves.

Learning about The Opposite Sex

Here we go…girls, boys, and hormones, oh my! I don’t know of any mom who is ready for that stage of life. You’re pretty comfortable with your son thinking girls are gross, and your daughter believing that boys have cooties, but a day will come when all that changes. Have you thought about that yet? What will you do? How will you react?

Well the key is to not go crazy. This will be the stage when they won’t want to spend as much time with you, wanting to be with their girlfriend or boyfriend more. You could put them on a guilt trip for not wanting to spend so much time with you, or you could instill in them what’s right and what’s wrong, and pray that they grow into responsible human beings by that time, while still making time for their poor old mom.

Growing Up

To watch your child grow, from being a tiny baby into a human being that has a mind and personality of their own, will fill you both with pride and a bit of sadness at the same time. You of course, hope and pray that you’ve displayed good parenting skills for the child you raised, and as a result, they grow into a loving, caring, and overall good person, but it can be hard to accept at first.

Once you’ve accepted it, it’s not so hard; they soon get to a point where they want to do nice things for you, as you’ve done for them, and once they get to that point, you’ll know you did a good job as a parent…even if you didn’t always do it right the first time.

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates