True Mom Confessions

There's a regular column in Good Housekeeping magazine titled "Blogger," where the editors find a different blog post to feature each month by women who are wives and/or mothers. Personally, I love these blogs because they are raw and true, many times relating to my own life. I was cleaning out my magazine stash, going through last year's issues tearing out recipe's and reading any interesting articles that I may have missed. Here is the "Blogger" feature from May of 2011 by Kyran Pittman who released a book last year titled Planting Dandelions: Field Notes from a Semi-Domesticated Life. I think we can all relate some of these...

True Mom Confessions
I don't make my kids eat things they don't like--and other lapses of a "good enough" mom

I've always loved that quote from the Earl of Rochester: "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories." I didn't have any theories about parenting before I actually became a parent myself; I had rigid, non-negotiable certainties. Mercifully, I'm a quick study--it took only three children to kick me off my high horse regarding the kind of mother I set out to be. That is, a perfect one. A few of the innumerable ways in which I've (happily) fallen short:

- Sometimes I nod and make noises like I'm listening to my kids when I am not. Especially before 9am.

- I gave up on giving daily baths--or getting them--after the second baby was born.

- I don't have a one-bite rule; a peanut butter sandwich is always on the menu; and I could never send a child to bed hungry.

- I like to be near my kids when they're playing or doing homework, but I don't really want to join in (unless they need me).

- I'm not a "baby" person. I couldn't wait for them to be old enough to have conversations and play board games.

- On more than one occasion, I've forgotten to pick up a child on time. My youngest still brings up "that day you forgot about me."

- I readily admit: playgoup was really for the mommies.

- I am neither organized enough nor solvent enough to pay a regular allowance, but sometimes I resort to bribery. I am full prepared to negotiate with terrorists.

- At one time or another, I've fallen back on tactics I swore I would never use on my children, including guilt, yelling, and threats to call the North Pole.

- In 12 years or parenting, I've never spanked, but I do remind them it's strictly a "one day at a time" abstinence program.

- Our toothfairy is notoriously unreliable.

- Sometimes I just vacuum up the LEGO's.

Glad that's off my chest. May I have my breakfast in bed now?

P.S. I can actually add to this list--is that terrible?? I'm also guilty of putting Ryleigh--because she's younger and doesn't know any better yet--to bed as early as 7pm just to get some extra peace and quiet. The extra sleep couldn't hurt her either. I'm also guilty of taking every opportunity available and twisting it to my advantage. This sounds like a horrid act, but hear me out. For example, recently Ryleigh had a Dr.'s appointment an hour away on a day that the kids only had half a day in school. The evening before, the hubs and I decided that we weren't going to send them to school just so the morning wouldn't be quite as hectic because they would already be home. I made my way to the second floor to tell the kids that if they cleaned their rooms REALLY good then they could stay home from school, but if not, they would have to go. They were so excited, they cleaned the rooms--in record time, mind you--and then even begged me to come look at them afterwards! Sure, we were going to let them stay home regardless, but they didn't know that. And hey, we got the cleanest rooms out of them that we'd ever seen. Everybody won :)