Parenthood is messy in real life.
Hollywood, media, and advertisers would have you believe differently.
Your house is picture perfect. Hair – perfect. Toddlers perfectly dressed without a drop of food or stains anywhere, well behaved. Everyone smiles and says cheese.
Thing is – it’s all just that – a snapshot of perfection styled with the help of an entire crew for EACH PERSON in the photo, movie, or commercial.
What if you took a snapshot of your own life? Of your house? Yourself? Your toddler or baby?
What would it look like? Is it perfect?
I’m willing to bet it is perfect.
Maybe not by Hollywood’s standards.
But by REALITY’S standards.
Real life, as I said when I started, gets messy.
What matters at the end of the day isn’t that the sink is full of dishes.
It’s not the massive pile of laundry threatening to devour your entire house.
It’s not the food particles permanently affixed to your toddler.
It’s not that you didn’t get a chance to shower or put on make up.
It’s not that you’re still in your pajamas.
What matters at the end of the day is whether or not you connected with your children.
Whether or not, in THAT DAY, your children felt loved and felt a connection with you.
Because that is what they will remember – not the cleaner than clean house – they’ll remember the Mommy who took time for them. Who got down on their level and loved THEM.
That? Is perfect.
Come back at 7am for a link up here. Several of us will be posting pics of our imperfectly perfect houses a long with happy pictures of our toddlers.
Because that?
Is redefining perfect in the rawest form.
My Postpartum Voice 
As always, You touch on exactly what’s on my mind. Thank you. hugs.
If I took a picture of my house right now, you’d see three pairs of socks scattered around my living room rug. You’d see a pile of junkmail on the kitchen table waiting to go to the recycling bin. You’d see cups on the end tables in the living room. And I KNOW there’s a smashed goldfish in front of the TV.
Why?
Because I’ve learned that life is too busy to be perfect. There is too much other important stuff to worry about than whether or not the socks make it to the hamper or the glasses from the night before make it back into the kitchen.
thanks for reminding me that this is good enough.
I struggled with this a lot in the first few months after my delivery. I was so concerned about being this picturesque parent that my parents never were. I ran around cleaning my house at all hours of the day and it was never good enough. And when I slacked, I beat the crap out of myself.
Also, I had dinner and the whole shebang waiting for my husband when he came home from work…talk about 1950’s eh?
It has taken me a while to learn to be flexible and to not worry about things so much. I know that every mom isn’t perfect. Nor ever will be.