A few days ago I had a really rough parenting day. It wasn’t that anything in particular happened, but it all just seemed to compound at once.
The baby woke up with a runny nose (again).
I accidentally dropped and broke a plate.
I didn’t predict how much my younger son would want a book when we went to an author book signing for my oldest son… and felt super mama guilt when he was sad afterwards. Why, oh why, hadn’t I considered how he would feel beforehand?!
When the kids got too rough with each other, I shouted.
I could go on, however what happened is actually not important.
They were all little things, in the scheme of life. And sometimes these things just happen.
But by the afternoon, I felt exhausted. Shattered, even. Like a failure.
It felt hard, even though I knew nothing in particular was a “big deal.”
And I wondered why.
I asked myself why I didn’t have it more together. Why didn’t I just go with the flow and forgive myself… move on and break the cycle of negativity.
This got me thinking about parenting, and why it is so hard. I came to the conclusion that the reason why parenting is hard is the same reason that life is hard.
We are always learning.
We are constantly being challenged.
We are figuring out how to compromise.
We lose battles we were sure we would win.
We are modifying routines to adapt to the c