Open Letter To Mamas In A Rough Season

Parenting is hard. All stages come with its difficulties and its learning curves. While we will never get everything right, it's important that we all just give it our best shot.

The first decade is packed with grooming up your child and really focusing on all the things that you have planned for them. Their growth, their development and all the things YOU envision.

You have laid a foundation that you are sure will carry them on throughout life. They were potty trained before most, they have been reading since forever, they know all of their alphabets, they constantly rack up on honor roll and certificates, they are playing all the sports you want them to play and you are feeling pretty good about this parenting thing.

You are even making the extra effort to be involved. You are on the PTA, you are hosting bake sales, you are volunteering, you are helping the teachers, you are the classroom mom and you are always present at all the things. YOU ARE DOING IT!

The next 8 years things change drastically. All the places you planned to go, you didn't go. All the things you said you would never say, you said IT. All the things you said you would never do, you did it. All the things you thought you would buy, you couldn’t.

To add insult to injury, all the things you envisioned for them they didn’t want for themselves. All the ideas you had for them, they didn’t like. All the clothes you picked out, they hated. After all of the disciplining, they still disobeyed. After telling them NO, they still did it.

Now, you are taking a different approach. You are trying to do things differently. You are at a lost. You have never dealt with this before. Your friends have never dealt with it before. You may even be embarrassed to share it with your friends. You have no "mom tribe." Your best friends can't quite relate to your hardships. Your spouse is often working late. You feel isolated.

Mama. There is no perfect parent. There is no perfect way. All of it takes true effort. The IT in all of this is the expectations. The stress. The anxiety. The hardships. THE SH** THAT HAPPENS.

Relinquish other people's expectations of you. Relinquish judging other parents (unless there is foul play of course). Relinquish living up to the expectations of other people. Relinquish the idea of doing things for the LIKES and the approval of others. DO it for you. DO it for your child, DO it for your household. DO it for the love. Just DO IT!

You’ve got this, You can do it.