I don’t know about you moms, but here’s the thing – I mess up at this mommy thing all. the. time.
For example, this week, I’ve thrown out dinner – twice! And the third night I only managed to not mess it up by making frozen pizza. I can only hope tomorrow I manage to cook something that isn’t already spoiled or that I don’t break a jar over the stock pot again.
There was a time, and it still creeps in now and then, when something like throwing out dinner would have me crushed. Depleted. Shutting down and hoping no one would notice me until I somehow earned the right to be noticed by them again. By cooking a 3 course meal or something.
But you know what, when I look back, even on this week and the crazy things happening in my kitchen, each mess up, each bad moment, is just that, a moment. It’s my choice how to react to that moment. And that reaction will be the memory that my husband, my kids, and myself will carry around.
So I say enough is enough. No more “mommy fails”, no more heaping guilt onto our backs until we’re crushed.

I say we smile. We laugh. We find something funny in the situation. We find something to be thankful for.
I say we acknowledge it for the moment that it is, use it as a great story when we’re in a room with other moms, and not feel badly about it.
Because we all mess up. We all throw out dinner sometimes. We all paint our kids’ faces in a creepy way when it’s supposed to be funny. We all change a diaper on our laps in a parking lot at a swanky wedding and get peed on and then run to nearest drug store in wet undies and accidentally buy granny panties to then wear all day at said swanky wedding. (Ok, maybe that last one is just me.)
I’m calling foul friends on posts that say #mommyfail and instead I want to redeem it. I want to see it for a moment, a snapshot of a mess, then moving forward.
Let’s call it #messymommymoments and let’s acknowledge that it’s gets a little messy up in here, for all of us.
But sharing it always make it a lot better.

*This post originally appeared on social media outlets for Life Around the Coffee Cup.*
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