the imperfect parent

It seems like everywhere you look there are parenting and lifestyle blogs filled with happy children, lovely outings, and adorable outfits.  Everything seems so perfect. Even though your Facebook friends might post sarcastic statuses explaining the silliness of how their homes resemble a construction zone, or how sleep isn't a necessity when you have a toddler, overall life seems pretty good.  We live in a time where it's easy to edit the appearance of our own lives in order to make them seem flawless.  And I am guilty of this as well! If you looked on my Facebook all you'd see are cheerful pictures of David and I, adorable fuzzy pets all curled up on the couch or sleeping in the sinks, and of course countless images of Liam all smiley and happy all day long.  What you don't see is late night bickering over who is going to help Liam get back to sleep, the bright yellow vomit (on my bright white rug) that my cat left for me to clean up because she decided to eat all of the flowers I picked from the garden, or Liam looking like he does in the photo above.

Life is not perfect.  And our life is not perfect.  During a normal day when 10 things are going wrong and I can't remember the last time I took a shower, there might be that one good moment where everything is going right and I take a picture...then I post it and voila! It looks like I've been having the best day ever.

The truth is most of the time I don't feel like the perfect parent and I don't have the perfect life.  The truth is, the photo above is closer to real life.  I was actually trying to get a nice picture of us, but Liam said enough is enough and began to cry.  Nothing I could say or do would make him smile for the camera...he was just done.  I wish we talked more about the downs of being a parent, not just the ups.  I  wish we found comfort in the fact that maybe we really don't know what we are doing, and that's ok!

I want to say that I spend all day singing songs, and taking him to the park, buying adorable hand made outfits on etsy, and preparing the most delicious meals made with the best organic foods Madison has to offer.  But what I will say is Liam watches TV and sometimes he's in his pajamas until 1 p.m.  Sometimes we sit down to eat lunch together, and sometimes I'm doing my best to come up with something other than cheddar bunnies for lunch because, the truth is,  I simply cannot convince myself that there is enough nutrition in those cute little bunny shaped crackers.  The truth is I find myself standing in the kitchen still wearing my glasses and drinking coffee that went cold 7 hours ago instead of being a perfect productive mommy that does laundry and empties the dishwasher because I'm tired....because honestly...Liam is not sleeping through the night, and the internet is full of LIES.

And the truth is...I'm a great mom.  I love my son with all of my heart.  I'm not perfect and life isn't perfect.  We just do our best, and that's all we really can do.  So give yourselves a break, imperfect parents.  You're awesome.  You're doing it! I'm proud of you.