A review of being a parent.
As I hear the pitter patter of little feet running towards my room, I think it must be 6:30am already, I roll over and look at the clock.. 5:15am, OH HELL NO!
Let me first state that I love being a mom, more specifically I love being a mom to my daughter, Harper. However; she has hit her terrible 3s and this parenting business is overrated at times. You know at like 5 am when you didn’t fall asleep before midnight or in the middle of the grocery store when your toddler is having a meltdown over something that they NEED even though they have no clue what it even is or how to use it. All instinct would have you yell back or drag your child out of the store but NO, not in Today’s world. In Today’s world that will land you a nice little visit with DCF or the County Police. LOL.
But really… There is so much stigma around even mentioning the downside of parenting, let alone anyone actually admit to experiencing it themselves and being able to talk about it freely. We’re all just suffering in silence during these times. Why? It’s a problem. I truly believe this is what opens the door to most of the tragedies that happen. Being a parent is amazing but it is also really frigging hard. So what do you do in those times of choas or with all the negative feelings that accompany it? It should be okay to talk about it and I welcome you to share your parenting struggles with each other in the comments below.
Personally, aside from seeing a therapist every week, I like the good old fashion coping skill of “taking 5”. I actually just used this skill last week when my kid decided she was going to cold clock me in the face for no apparent reason and it took quite a bit for me not to knock my almost 3 year old out. Which leads me to the days where no coping skills or amount of reasoning seems to help the situation. The days where you just want to give up and you wonder if your kid would even care or would they be happier some place else. In these “I hate being a mom” moments as I like to call them, I tend to do two things:
- I write it all out. Every ugly and/or happy experience, thought, feeling.
- Afterwards I breakdown and cry for a while, alone.
Hey! It’s okay because guess what, TOMORROW DOES COME. And tomorrow certainly does bring one hell of a guilt trip with it. “How could you possibly even think of giving up on that beautiful creature you created” or “Maybe you are an awful parent for letting yourself get to that point”. Listen, we are all human. There are no superheros or super parents and there’s also no such thing as a perfect child. As long as you can be aware, fix/own up to your mistakes and you try your best to work on it every single day, you are good enough. You are a great parent! Eventually it does get better. Well at least for a while and then another crazy stage hits!
So in my opinion: Don’t give up, talk about the bad just as much as you talk about the good and take a breath because parenting definitely weighs up. Remember to use your resources, 211 is a great first step. Reach out to them and they can connect you with more local resources.
Stay kind, stay real and thank you for reading.
Creepsakers 