Perfectly imperfect

I will never forget the moment I found myself overcome with emotion. Carrying a four or five month old Maddie in her car chair which felt like it weighed 30kgs, sweat running down my face, handbag strap falling off my shoulder and feeling like I had no idea what I was doing! Aching body, irritated, moody and feeling helpless. After an outing with my newborn where I tried to ‘put my face on’, look pretty in my breastfeeding bra with leaky boobs and trying to pull it all together to embrace this thing called motherhood – getting myself along with my crying hungry newborn out of the car and down into the house, holding in a wee for what felt like a lifetime, boobs aching to feed and just emotional…

I will never forget how overwhelmed I felt. How imperfect I felt. Surely this wasn’t what motherhood was all about? It is a memory I will never forget. Oh the highs and lows!

Fast forward to two years later and I still have these moments. They are just different in the fact that you try and attempt to do something nice for your toddler and they act up and you wondered why you bothered. Moments where it is 40 degrees outside, my long hair is annoying me and all I want to do is tie it up, Maddie won’t get into her car chair, I am (still) dying to go to the loo for a wee (I have again been holding in) and I am tired… Oh – no one warns you how much life changes and revolves around your kids

I mean let’s get real. We all have this preconceived idea of what we think motherhood (especially during maternity leave) is going to be. We are going to look fabulous with our hair and make up done beautifully, our days and weekends are going to consist of playdates, birthday parties and all things fun… well no one warns you about the real hardship of emotionally, mentally and financially dealing with kids.

The highs are so high and I have learnt that the lows are so normal and we become better at dealing with them. At each age and developmental stage there are different challenges.

I think we naturally all want to be that ‘perfect mom’ who looks like she has it all together. She’s happy, healthy and loves her kids. Social media doesn’t help this notion of the expectations we put on ourselves and on our kids too (without even realising). What we don’t see (often through our goggles) is how we are all pretty imperfect (yup, every single one of us)… we all have kids who act up, we all have our super emotional days, exhaustion catches up to us, we have work pressures, financial pressures, things to do, places to be and we all find our fuse shortening when our kids push our buttons.

One of the most amazing thing I have found as a mother is how I can relate to any mom I meet. We immediately have a talking point, something in common and we can both laugh it out. the ‘Oh yes, I know exactly what you are talking about’…

I don’t speak about these challenges, these hardships or these emotional outbursts in a negative light but rather to encourage moms in every single stage of their journey that I can promise you – we are all imperfectly perfect! It isn’t just you and I can guarantee that the road you are on and the road you have taken on your journey is the right one for your child! Trust your way above anything! There is no such thing as a perfect mom, only a real mom and YOU are PERFECT for YOUR child/children!

This post is sponsored by Baby Dove South Africa.

Until next time…