26 Oct It’s not just you…
“I don’t know how you do it all. You have it all under control. ” There isn’t a day that goes by that another mom doesn’t say these words to me. They see me with my 5 kids, my full time teaching job, my health business – and then see me doing the “mom” stuff of running people around to sports and activities, and think that maybe I have it all together because I haven’t pulled all my hair out yet. When they say this – I want to give them a hug and really help them see the truth – I have zero things together. Really.
Let me give you a small glimpse into my every day. Fisher, my 5 year old, was given a Gatorade after his football game for his snack. He left it in the car so that when we got back in the car after dinner, at around 8pm, he decided it was time to drink the whole thing. Of course I told him no, that he didn’t need a giant Gatorade right before bed. Which was the trigger for him to literally FLIP OUT. He screamed – over and over and over – “Give me MY Gatorade!” for the entire car ride home. And when I say screamed – please picture a pterodactyl screech mixed with unconsolable crying. It was actually insane. I tried reassuring him and telling him that I understood his disappointment, but the screeching didn’t stop. So, what do I do as a good mom??? Turn up my radio to drown it out and try to get all the other kids to sing along to the song. About halfway home, my husband Brandon turned to me and said “I’m going to lose my mind.” It was true. Me too. That 15 minute car ride home felt like 4 1/2 hours. It took everything in me to not freak out. When we got home, I pried the Gatorade from his hand and walked him (while he screamed) all the way to his room and got him into his bed, where he finally screamed himself to sleep. The next morning, he came into my room, all sunshine and smiles, and didn’t even remember the events of the night before.
Things like this are honestly a daily occurrence. I always say that my life should be a reality show. I mean – it’s crazy, full of interesting characters, and insane plot lines. I definitely don’t have anything figured out or ‘all together’ – let’s be real, at any given moment, I’m one kid tantrum away from jumping in my car and driving to Mexico.
So what’s the deal? There isn’t any hope for us mamas? Everything is always going to be crazy? YEP! None of us have it together. And that is great news!
I told the Gatorade-tantrum story to a friend the other day and she thanked me for sharing it. She said that she feels like she is going to lose her mind with her kids too – and it’s nice to know that it’s not just her. Hearing this story helped her, as she said, feel normal.
Here’s the truth: We moms are ALL doing our best to take care of our people, give them good experiences, teach them to become productive, contributing members of society all while trying to not have a breakdown.
And, since we are all just coordinating the crazy on a day to day basis, another truth we can hold on to is that we are all in this together! Us moms get it! We know all that our mom lives entail and because each of us can relate – we can lean on each other in the crazy. To feel normal. To share stories. To sometimes commiserate. And most importantly, to encourage eachother to keep on truckin’.
SO what is the big ol’ lesson in all of this???
It isn’t just you! It’s all of us. No matter the circumstances we are in – stay at home mom, working mom, 1 kid, 5 kids – we can all share our stories and help eachother feel normal.
Oh! And between you and me, when I say I’m gonna go to Mexico…..”Mexico” is code for I’m really going to be in Greece.