I was at my Booty Camp class last night, waiting on my yoga mat with two other women who have been taking the class with me. We were chatting about our kids- my one, they both had two. They told me all about daycare ups and downs (which I’ll experience in September….gulp), temper tantrums, etc…
One casually mentioned that her 17 month old son recently went on a hunger strike during dinner. No matter what, he wouldn’t eat dinner. The other chimed in about her son who decided that he was going to go to bed at 5:30pm, without eating dinner, every night for the past three months, because that’s when he was sleepy. They went back and forth about the weeks where their respective children would eat only grilled cheese or Kraft Dinner or canned pasta. They taught me how to hide veggies in cheese sauce. They laughed about so many different evenings when they had rushed home from work, thrown something together on the stove while a crying baby and whining toddler hung off of them, only to sit at the table and discover that everyone would have been much happier with a bowl of cereal and some strawberries on the side.
It was one of the best mom conversations I’ve ever had, because it was totally free from judgment. No one clicked their tongue over the veggies their kids refused to eat. No one waxed poetically about tracking whole grain servings. These were some real moms, who do the best they can to feed their kids really healthy foods (hence the hiding veggies trick), talking about their real lives.
It may sound silly, but it really lifted a lot of the stress I have put on myself to be perfect. I have believed that I have to be perfect to raise The Boy properly and I now kind of felt like I had permission to not be perfect as a parent. All because these moms shared their own shortcomings and imperfections.
I might not share the same struggles as them (The Boy is a healthy food nut- go figure!), but I have struggles, and it was nice to finally hear other moms tell me theirs without a shred of guilt.
This is exactly what bonds us as mothers. But only if we open ourselves up to it. Good for you, Sarah. It is impossible to be perfect so just be the best you can and accept others for the same. Who needs all of that pressure anyway? Perfection is boring!