A Mary Poppins Type Mom

This morning I found myself being the kind of mother that I want to be all the time. The one who responds to a tantrum with a calm, soothing voice. The one who distracts her child from their upset using creativity and patience. Today, for some reason I was able to wake up, be rational with my toddler and enjoy a relatively easy morning with less whining than usual. 

I was a Mary Poppins type mom... 

A girl can dream, right?

But that is not always the case. Most days I wake up being the mother that I wish I was not. Impatient, unable to reason with my child, easily frustrated. Unable to hear "mommy... mommy... mommy" come out of their mouth one more time I am lost as to how to respond. How to distract. How to escape. 

There are many moments in parenting where I find myself yelling at my three year old. Asking why she can't simply tell me what is the matter. Forgetting that she doesn't know... and cannot comprehend why it is that she is upset. She is simply too young to understand the wide range of emotions she is feeling. And with her vocabulary as advanced as it is, I have to remind myself of her age. It is hard to remember that how she is acting is normal.

Oh, joy. It is normal for her to lie to my face. It is normal for her to directly disobey me. It is normal for her to cry for hours on end for no reason at all. It is normal for her to drive me crazy. It is normal. 

It is in these normal moments that I can easily lose my cool and make things worse. It helps no one when I respond to her crying with yells. It simply intensifies her tears. And then I find myself apologizing. 

The most humble thing I have learned to do in my life is to apologize to my children. But, it shows them that none of us are perfect and making things right with others when we do mess up is so important. I want my daughters to grow up knowing that they can always talk to me and be open with me when they do make a mistake, because I do to, and that is ok. I hope my failures are an example to them. 

Here's to all the imperfect moms out there! You are not alone.