The "Good Enough" Parent

Photo by Amanda Ingle Photography

If you're a parent I'm sure you're aware of the ebbs and flows that come with parenting.  We always want to be great parents though, right?  The best cook, the most attentive with our children, the most accepting or encouraging, the most involved...  It's exhausting sometimes, isn't it?  And I have been doing a darn good job of it all lately.  I've been getting up, getting dressed, making my bed, and being truly productive around my house.  My dishes are done, meals planned, and the laundry room is more empty than it has been in years.  I even played cards with the kids this afternoon.  But man, I'm beat.  And if I'm "about" anything, I'm about being real.

I'm really tired of this world in which we all live our separate lives and lie to each other that it's perfect.  It's not perfect.  I'm exhausted.  I've snapped a few times this week.  I've actively avoided my kids because just one more whine or tattle is going to push me over the edge.  I'm tired, and I am alone, but it's not forever.  Handsome will be home in a few days, my chicken pox isolation will end, but for now it's just plain hard.

So you know what?  Being a "good enough" mom is good enough for me.  My floor was swept at some point today.  My kids are eating lunch at 3pm and we've had more grains this week than we've had in the past 6 months, but they're fed.  I forgot a load of laundry in the wash but I'm rewashing now so I can wash diapers.  I haven't swished and swiped all week.  I left dishes drying in the drainer overnight but they were clean.  The dishwasher was loaded, and my Monkey got on the bus this morning with most of his homework done from the week he missed due to the pox.

All in all, it's good enough.  And some weeks good enough is good enough.  Next week we'll try for extraordinary again.