“I’m simply doing the best I can, and that’s just going to have to be enough.”
‘I feel like a hot mess mom all the time. My children laugh in the face of danger, yours are gentle. While their house is tidy, I turn a blind eye to the bathroom.’: Mom reminds us ‘you’re doing the best you can’
‘I burst into tears and couldn’t stop. I don’t want to have 3 a.m. conversations about dinosaurs and unicorns.’: Mom shares how mental load of parenting has taken its toll
“I spent an exhausting day trying to be a fun mom, only to be rejected by my 5 year-old who told me he hated me and wanted to live somewhere else. It shouldn’t offend me, because he’s 5, but it did.”
‘They all said I would be so happy. I wanted to be happy, but I also wanted a sandwich.’: Mom says post-birth ‘I definitely loved her, I just wasn’t sure I was IN love with her’
“What kind of horrible person am I? I was begging my husband to just get me out of there! ‘It’s going to be a joy like you’ve never felt.’ Instead I was frozen with fear. I was hemorrhaging. I was still searching her face for the joy I was supposed to be feeling. I felt guilty and ashamed.”
‘Today I got called a boring mother, a crappy mother, a wonderful mother and that I was so much fun. All in a matter of hours.’: Mom urges ‘the last thing you need right now is guilt’
“If they spend their days on iPads while you gather your thoughts, it’s okay. If you wanna sit in your pajamas, eat brownies, and watch Frozen 2 on repeat all day, that’s OKAY. If the house looks like a bomb site, who gives a crap. Really. No one is going to visit you anyway.”
‘You have to work. Stay-at-home moms are lazy and uneducated.’ He brainwashed me. He refused to adopt my girls in order to get child support money.’: Man adopts wife’s children in wake of divorcing abusive ex
“I got pregnant one month after meeting my daughter’s biological father. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I have everything I’ve ever wanted. I can stay home and take care of the kids.’ Instead, I cried myself to sleep every night in fear of being killed. ‘A stay-at-home mom is lazy and uneducated.’ He brainwashed me. I was forced to work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. I wasn’t allowed to see my kids.”
‘Is this the time they fire me?’ I see you practicing your speech for your boss on why you have to leave early AGAIN. I see you racing home to MAYBE make it in time.’: Mom details the guilt of being a working parent
“We are told ‘You can be whatever you want to be! You don’t have to live in a 1950’s mindset! You can be a CEO!’ What they don’t tell you is the pit in your stomach you feel when you get a notice about a 6 p.m. conference on the day of your kids practice or activity. The panic when your kid’s school calls and asks you to pick them up because they are sick and you don’t want your bosses to be upset.”
‘We don’t get sick days. We’re late to everything. We’re expected to work like we don’t have children and raise children like we don’t have careers.’: Working mom shares candid peek into her ‘beautifully chaotic’ life
“We come home from work already exhausted. Every time we actually sit down to eat, someone needs more of something. All week, we’re an Uber to small, crying humans that don’t tip well. Laundry. Is. Our. ENEMY. We are ALWAYS torn between excelling in our career or rocking it as a mom.”
‘Throw in your ‘perfect’ towel. Wave the flag of your motherhood style proudly. To them, you hung the moon. They couldn’t do life without you.’: Mom says ‘no amount of mom guilt can take away the glory you are in your child’s eyes’
“Pinterest Pam is shoving her perfectly-staged lemonade stand in our face. Even when we don’t mean to compare, we do. Society tells us to suck it up, work full time, be the perfect mother, work out daily, prepare a home-cooked meal every night, and keep our husbands happy. And if you fail at any of those things, you’re a crappy mother. Instead of talking about it, we try to do more. Well, mamas, I’m calling BS.”
‘Please stop judging me for leaving the office at exactly 5 p.m. Being a full-time working mom with young kids is not easy.’: Mom pens thank-you letter to those who have shown her ‘grace’
“I know I’m missing this meeting, but my kid’s preschool graduation is more important. I know I was late today, but I can’t drop the baby off at daycare until 7:45 a.m. I know I seem distracted, but I am. I have an inconsolable, sick toddler and I’ve been awake since 4:30 a.m. I’m supposed to leave my personal life at the door when I come to the office, but when you are a mom to two small kids, that is hard to do.”
‘I was doing her laundry FOR her. She was watching me fold her thong underwear. She just stood there holding the baby! This is ridiculous.’: Mom urges others to remember helping means doing so with ‘no strings attached’
“I was sitting at a coffee shop and overheard (I was eavesdropping) two women behind me. One was complaining about her daughter-in-law who’d just given birth to her grandchild. ‘I offered to help, but this ridiculous!’ she said. Here’s the thing. I’ve learned if we really want to help, we just show up. We ring their doorbell and start unloading their dishwasher or play with their kid while they take a shower. We shove a lasagna in the oven so they don’t have to think about dinner.”
