I was chatting with a
friend today (another mom) and we were talking about moms we know who seem to accomplish
so much despite having so much on their plates.
I think we referred to them as “miracle workers”. And, they are. You all know the kind of mom that I am
talking about. The one that has 6 kids, keeps
a clean house, makes all of her (organic) baby food from scratch, does crafts
out the wazoo, home schools, heads up multiple charities, runs marathons, leaps
tall buildings in a single bound, solves world peace…all in a day’s work. I do not fault people who have the ability to
do so much. In fact, I think it is
wonderful (or, annoying – no, wonderful – no, annoying – ok, wonderful). But I have to admit that I feel a little
insecure when I compare myself to them. My
house is not clean a lot of the time, I can’t even keep the peace in my house,
never mind the world, and the only baby food I ever made from scratch was
breast milk.
So, I thought about the
whole “miracle worker” conversation for most of the day and it was bothering me
that I was not feeling like I was as “good” as other moms that I know…it wasn’t
until about 6 or so hours later when I was crawling out of the baby’s room
(yes, I was actually crawling – don’t even ask) to tend to my 4 year-old who
was crying in her room after being sent there for name calling while dodging my
3 year-old who was running to go potty in the peepee teepee that is now in our
living room (separate blog altogether), and it dawned on me; we are all miracle
workers. Every. Single. Parent. The amount that we accomplish with the
responsibility that we have is awesome regardless of whether that means we can run
a marathon with 10 babies strapped to our back or if that means that we are
lucky to walk a yard pushing a baby in a stroller. Every single day Steve and I wake up and, in
addition to getting ourselves ready, get three little, living, often
uncooperative beings up, dressed, fed (ok – sometimes this doesn’t happen, but
we do try!), out the door and dropped off to multiple locations. And every night, after a full day of work, we pick them up, feed them,
bathe them, play with them, read to them, and put them (read, force them) to
bed just in time to clean the house, open up our laptops, and finish our
workdays (we spend many romantic nights sitting next to each other and
silently working at our laptops – it’s the kind of love you can only dream
of;). And I am not even accounting for
the various other miscellaneous things that come along with parenting: illness,
birthday parties, snow days, dance class, sibling fights, doctors’
appointments, potty training, and the list goes on and on.
We all have different
capabilities and strengths and parenting is no different from any other skill. Some people are ok at it; others are
great. Some people are also great at
time management, are exceptionally creative, have a knack for working with
kids, or endless energy…all things that can make a good parent even
better. But my point is that even if you
are really horrible at doing anything else beyond just the bare necessities of
parenting, you are a miracle worker. A
FREAKING MIRACLE WORKER. Anything you
can accomplish beyond that is pretty ah-maz-ing. So give yourself a little bit of a break and
give credit where credit is due. Did your
child(ren) leave the house dressed in clothes today (the size, cleanliness, and
seasonality-made up word?-are irrelevant)?
If yes, you’re a miracle worker. Did
your child(ren) eat at least one meal that included food? Miracle worker. Were you able to use the bathroom by yourself
at least once during the day? Miracle
worker. Did you brush at least one thing
on your child’s body? Hair? Teeth?
Other? Miracle worker. Did everyone survive to live another day and
do it all again tomorrow? Miracle worker…and
pretty damn luckyJ
Until next time…
