good mom

I Am Mom Enough

Most of the folks reading my blog are parents, grandparents, and a few soon-to-be parents. So I think the majority of you must have heard, read, or seen the controversial new Time Magazine cover:

Now I won’t go into a thoughtful discussion of this cover like the one you’ll find over at The Mommy Psychologist, or a passionate rant about it like the one you can find at People I Want To Punch In The Throat or a zillion other blogs.

Let me just say that stuff like this is EXACTLY why I embrace my calling as the Experienced Bad Mom. No matter what I do or how well I do it, there is always some magazine, some news person, some other parent, some human being, etc. that claims I’m not doing it right or not doing it well enough.

It is impossible to be a perfect parent. So here’s to all my imperfections. They may make me a bad mom according to society’s unrealistic expectations. However, my supposed imperfections make me a real, honest-to-goodness mom who loves her kids and is trying her best. And that’s good enough for me.

Feel free to share your thoughts. Or just give yourself a double fist pump!

The Half Way Mom

I usually make fun of myself on this blog. I point out how inane things like my son talking about his butt, or my daughter loving the Disney princesses, reflect back on me as a bad mom. I mean, really, butt talk is NOT classy nor are the princesses the healthiest role models.

My husband says I have a complex. He’s probably right. So I’m going rogue today by talking about something that doesn’t make me feel like a bad mom. Rather, it makes me feel like the half way mom.

Let me explain.

Recently, I was driving to work listening to a local morning radio show. “Where will you be in 10 years?” asked the DJ.

“Well, that will be 2022,” thought one of the other DJs.

2022?

Holy cow, my son will be 18 and a freshman in college in 2022.

He’s 8 ½ now. In 3rd grade. He still misses most of his face when he uses a napkin. Sometimes, he still pees all over the floor. (REALLY?!) But he’s nearly half way to college, which means I’m almost half way done raising him.

(I guess there’s always a chance that he’ll live at home until he’s 35…)

Still, who he is at age 8 is worlds away from who he was as a baby, toddler, and preschooler. And my daughter just turned 5. Five! She’s going to kindergarten in the fall. I’ll be the mom of two school-age children then.

How did THAT happen?

At this momentous time in my life, half way towards raising my son before he leaves for college, I feel the need to look back on the early years from infancy to preschool.