Confessions of a Normal Mom

I think the term “bad mom” is thrown around a little too lightly nowadays. It’s pretty hard to really and truly be a bad mom. Repeatedly and intentionally hurting your child or putting them in danger. Being consciously or maliciously neglectful or negligent. Those are the types of things I think we all can agree are “bad.” The rest of it? I’m pretty sure it’s just one version or another of normalcy.

So here are some of my own confessions of my less than stellar parenting moments.

I figured it would be a good follow up to my last post about feeling “put together,” just so you don’t get the wrong idea about me. If nothing else, maybe it will make you feel better about yourself today.

1. My son often wears the same clothes multiple days in a row. I make him change if he is going to school or we might see people we saw the previous day, otherwise…pick your battles mamas. This is not one of mine.
2. My kids don’t brush their teeth every morning (we are consistent with night time brushing and they have all seen the dentist and are fine, no worries). They also don’t bathe every day unless they get super dirty and we have no choice. And now that it is summer time and we live in a neighborhood with a pool? I’m pretty sure a pool is just a giant bathtub.
3. My older two have decorated their seats in the van. Toys in the cup holders, stickers ALL OVER the windows and arm rests. My car is very recognizable. I say that this is because I’m laid back and hip and want them to have their own space, but really I just didn’t notice it was happening until it was too far gone for me to do much about it. I figure I’ll just bide my time and invest in a lot of Goo Gone.
4. We have processed food in our house on the regular. Hot dogs and fruit snacks are basically staples around here. We try to strike a balance with fruits and veggies, but convenience (not to mention multiple children eating without whining) trumps a lot of things in my book.
5. I don’t wash the crib sheet NEARLY often enough. Poor third baby.
6. Sometimes I didn’t “forget” to do the letter bag for preschool. Sometimes it was just too hard to find pictures from Redbook that started with the letter Q.
7. We go to Starbucks so often that they are learning our names. Those cake pops are like crack to my children. As are the iced vanilla lattes to their mother.
8. I rely on screen time for my middle most days to make sure that my littlest gets a nap and I can actually clean myself and my home. Or also take a nap.
9. I skip sentences (or pages) in really long tedious kids books during story time. Now that my oldest can read she is starting to rat me out. But she is also starting to be able to read to her younger siblings, so it’s all good, she can stay.
10. I spend too much time on my phone. I worry my kids might think it’s actually one of my appendages. Sometimes I will try to set it down and walk away, leaving it in a different room than the one I am currently in, and usually a child will bring it to me heroically, like surely I could not have meant to leave it behind! (This is actually one I want to work on over the summer…I’m sure we could all disengage from our technology more often than we do. I’m open to tips!)

I hope you had a few “me too!” moments and/or are feeling supremely confident in your parenting abilities. Otherwise, please don’t report me to any kind of child protective service.

What makes YOU a “normal” mommy?