I used to think that life with a baby was one of the most challenging times as a mom. For some reason though, I must have thought that I could do this whole #momlife thing because I had more kids.
Looking back at my first kid and the whole labor experience…it was probably pretty close to the worst-case scenario you could imagine. My uterus was almost yanked out of my body and I lost so much blood when I hemorrhaged that I couldn’t walk up the three stairs to our house for about a week. But you know, let’s go ahead and do this again.
Life with the bottles, spit up, and diapers were fun times. I’m kidding…honestly, I was so sleep deprived I really don’t remember much of it. But the thing is…the children did things according to MY schedule. Feeding and pooping – no, that was on them. But going to the store, a walk, or even when I wanted to fold laundry, I could do that when I wanted.
A quick glance at my Google calendar right now, I am kind of wishing I could go back in time to those moments when they were little. Not for the diapers and baby poop smell but for the schedule. It was so open.
Monday night was a night that was all planned out and everything was going to work. It was going to be tight to make it to everything and as always, I had no idea what the family would be having for supper, or if there would even be time for that, but we would get to all of the places we needed to go and maybe…even on time.
Now, this is all a big deal because the youngest had 2 places to be tonight and both were very important. It is all these “end of the year” activities that are ending up on the schedule and to miss something is huge. Huge! We were going to make it happen though with some quick rides across town from one thing to the other thing. I was determined to make it happen.
Then, the e-mail came.
A meeting that was supposed to be last Thursday is now also Monday night at the same time and in another section of town. Same kid is supposed to be at this meeting and also the two other events. Now we’ve got a problem. No matter how awesome my Super Mom skills are, I can’t physically find a creative way to make all of these things happen at the same time. No one has cloned me yet and unless I can find a way for Mayo Clinic to do that in a few days, we would be missing something.
Reality: I couldn’t do it all without a clone.
I’m not sure if that realization was really a shocker but more of a disappointment at first that I let my kid down. I make it a point NOT to overschedule our kids and make sure that they have some free time to be kids…but still, here we are with three things on one night for one kid.
Have you ever had that mommy guilt? I had a few days of that after I got that e-mail adding the third event to our already overbooked evening. But then, I had to snap out of it.
My kid was going to have a great night and I wasn’t going to let this added stress that I’m feeling get put on his tiny shoulders. If we missed something, it’s not going to be the end of the world.
The real reality for moms is…at times we might let people down. We can’t volunteer for every school function. We can’t always bring in treats for special events. Carpool is important to get from one place to the other but sometimes, we can’t make it happen. That dentist appointment for the kids might not happen at exactly 6 months…but maybe more like 9 months since we need to figure out how to actually take a day off just to sit at the dentist. The world will keep on spinning…even when we miss that one, very important thing!.
We can’t do everything. And guess what?! It is ok.
P.S. If no one has told you lately…you are doing a great job as a mom!
P.P.S. If there is a Dr. at Mayo Clinic working on this…I live in Rochester and can be in your office in 5 minutes!
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