I wish I was like Mary Poppins. She swoops in whenever things get out of hand and calmly takes control of the situation. She can clean things up with a snap of her fingers. She remembers to give the kids their vitamins, and they always taste good. She always looks amazing, even when she gets dirty! Her bag is AWESOME! And she is ‘practically perfect in every way.’
I just can’t seem to ever measure up to her measuring tape.
If I use her, or other parents, as a measurement for myself, I start to feel like I am ‘practically failing in every way.’
It’s really dangerous to compare myself to other people. I’ve heard that we tend to compare our weaknesses to other people’s strengths. I know I do that. I take a strength from one person, and a different one from another, and one more from someone else, and I think that I should have all of those.
When I find I don’t have any of those strengths I start to feel like I am doing this whole parenting thing wrong. I’m not kind enough. My house isn’t clean enough. I don’t play enough with my kids. I don’t craft enough. My house isn’t cute enough. And the list could keep going on for a while.
All this accomplishes is to make me lose hope in myself and my family.
All of us are different, which means we all have different parenting styles, different likes and dislikes. We are different! So why do we expect to have the same strengths as everybody else? That is unrealistic.
I had a strength pointed out to me that I hadn’t realized could be a strength or a weakness. Someone said that I was awesome at always getting dinner on the table for my family.
As I thought about it, I realized that I am pretty good at that. Sometimes it is a healthy, three course, balanced meal, and sometimes it is just macaroni and cheese and hot dogs. But I usually do have something ready for them to eat.
I saw that I was good at something. And if I’m good at ONE thing, chances are I can get better at one more thing.
Maybe someday I won’t be too far off of Mary Poppins.
Probably not. But…maybe. 🙂
I’m pretty good at getting my kids dressed for the day. I’m also a goer and doer which means that my kids are portable and well behaved in public. Sadly, I’m also really good at comparing myself to other moms, or worse, to myself before I had kids. Working on it!
That is such an awesome skill to have! Lots of moms feel trapped at home because they can’t take their kids anywhere. Your kids are super cute! 🙂