I'm a Hot Mess Mum and thats Okay
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MummyBloggers
So today I’ve had yet another morning of dragging my reluctanant 5-year-old through the school gates. She’s still going through a particularly clingy phase, and tells me frequently between 7 – 8.50 eachmorning ‘Mummy, you are my best friend’ in hope they’re the magic words to bag her a day off school.
My response is the same each morning. I give her a hug, tell her I
love her, then hand her over to staff and give her a wave as she looks
back and throws me evils across the yard as she’s led into school by her
teacher.
Part of me feels I should go home feeling incredibly guilty, and ring
in half an hour to check she’s settled ok. But the other part, like 90%
of me part knows that this is life, she’ll be fine and I have nothing
to gain in sitting around worrying. Then I feel incredible guilt for not
feeling any guilt and wonder if this makes me a bad parent.
Infact I often find myself doing, or not doing things which make me question if I’m a bad parent.
As I type this, my house is slightly messy. Nothing serious, but I’m
aware one of the kids left a half eaten lollipop stuck to the sofa as we
were about to leave thismoring. Possibly Emily. She’ll have had it for
breakfast along with the chocolate coins and jelly babies she still has from a party we went to at the weekend. Jessica had a slice or the awful
cake we made last night, with Angel delight, and I did too. You see some mornings
I’ll get up extra early to make them berry topped ‘Brain Booster
Pancakes’ for breakfast (oats, flaxseed, banana, coconut oil. That sort
of Pinteresty shiz), others I’ll take the extra 20 minutes in bed and
serve up a packet of chocolate digestives.
Sometimes I’ll spend an hour or two preping and peeling veg, another
hour cooking and dish up a particularly healthy and colourful tea.
Others I keep it real and know most of it will end up in the bin so
processed food it is. Like chips. Fishfingers and chips. They always go
down well with about half a bottle of ketchup for the youngest.
Sometimes we’ll take them to McDonalds. Sometimes once a week (dead
cert on a Saturday), sometimes even twice a week. But definitely 4 times
a month, at least.
Sometimes when it’s a rainy day, we’ll do arts and crafts, or I’ll
try and suppress my inner ‘would you like mummy to mix in the
crispies/cut the cookies and you just eat them. Please’? control freak,
and let them do some baking
Okay, not necessarily rainy, but the ones where I just can not be
bothered with the drama that is putting on coats and shoes. But the
times we do go to the park, I’m often the parent sat on the bench
Facebooking. Telling them to go on the slide as mummy is too tired to
push a swing for half an hour. Yes, I sometimes use it as ‘me time’.
And others I’ll give them the Ipad and let them watch Dora the Explorer. It’s educational. They’ve both picked up some Spanish
Sometimes we’re super prepared in the morning and we take a stroll to
school stretching the one minute walk down the road to 5. We’ll go the
more ‘scenic’ route looking in neighboring gardens and Emily likes to
point at and name the flowers each time we do.
Others I’m running around looking for something. Usually my phone, or
my sanity if it’s a Friday. Then I’ll realise as we’re about to leave
the house my daughter hasn’t yet washed her beautiful little face. And
I’ll take her to school anyway.
Sometimes I’ll hear one of them complain ‘I can’t find any clean socks’, and I’ll offer the solution of ‘wear yesterdays’.
Sometimes we’ll go out to eat and I’ll give them a little behavioral
prep talk and that ‘pleeeeease just. behave’ glare when I can see they
haven’t quite listened. Others I’ll think sod it, get it out of your
system and lie on the floor under the table if you must.
Sometimes when we tackle the dreaded task of food shopping, I’ll
quietly hurry behind them every time they run off in opposite
directions, then get down to their level and explain why it’s not
acceptable behavior. Others I’ll lose my patience and shout both their names
followed by ‘get back here. NOW’!!
Sometimes I have a run of taking the kids to every single party
they’re invited to. But sometimes I forget one, or we arrive late. By a
week. That’s happened before.
Sometimes I’m on a roll with the kids homework and ‘Weekend Diaries’.
But others I’ll spend 15 minutes on a monday morning searching through
the kitchen drawers for a pen, then I’ll scribble away and knock up a
story making their weekends sound so much more adventurous than they
actually were.
And after I’ve finished typing this I’m off on a hunt for twigs,
leaves and conkers to put into Emilys ‘Half-Term Treasure bag’ I
found inside her book bag. Thismorning
Sometimes I’ll yell at my kids. Sometimes I’ll laugh at them. But I always laugh with them
There’s some parents who appear to have it all together. Then there
are the rest of us. We aren’t lazy. We aren’t incompetent. We aren’t bad
parents. We’re still awesome, loving caring mums.
We’re just, for lack of a better term, a hot mess.
My response is the same each morning. I give her a hug, tell her I
love her, then hand her over to staff and give her a wave as she looks
back and throws me evils across the yard as she’s led into school by her
teacher.
Part of me feels I should go home feeling incredibly guilty, and ring
in half an hour to check she’s settled ok. But the other part, like 90%
of me part knows that this is life, she’ll be fine and I have nothing
to gain in sitting around worrying. Then I feel incredible guilt for not
feeling any guilt and wonder if this makes me a bad parent.
Infact I often find myself doing, or not doing things which make me question if I’m a bad parent.
As I type this, my house is slightly messy. Nothing serious, but I’m
aware one of the kids left a half eaten lollipop stuck to the sofa as we
were about to leave thismoring. Possibly Emily. She’ll have had it for
breakfast along with the chocolate coins and jelly babies she still has from a party we went to at the weekend. Jessica had a slice or the awful
cake we made last night, with Angel delight, and I did too. You see some mornings
I’ll get up extra early to make them berry topped ‘Brain Booster
Pancakes’ for breakfast (oats, flaxseed, banana, coconut oil. That sort
of Pinteresty shiz), others I’ll take the extra 20 minutes in bed and
serve up a packet of chocolate digestives.
Sometimes I’ll spend an hour or two preping and peeling veg, another
hour cooking and dish up a particularly healthy and colourful tea.
Others I keep it real and know most of it will end up in the bin so
processed food it is. Like chips. Fishfingers and chips. They always go
down well with about half a bottle of ketchup for the youngest.
Sometimes we’ll take them to McDonalds. Sometimes once a week (dead
cert on a Saturday), sometimes even twice a week. But definitely 4 times
a month, at least.
Sometimes when it’s a rainy day, we’ll do arts and crafts, or I’ll
try and suppress my inner ‘would you like mummy to mix in the
crispies/cut the cookies and you just eat them. Please’? control freak,
and let them do some baking
Okay, not necessarily rainy, but the ones where I just can not be
bothered with the drama that is putting on coats and shoes. But the
times we do go to the park, I’m often the parent sat on the bench
Facebooking. Telling them to go on the slide as mummy is too tired to
push a swing for half an hour. Yes, I sometimes use it as ‘me time’.
And others I’ll give them the Ipad and let them watch Dora the Explorer. It’s educational. They’ve both picked up some Spanish
Sometimes we’re super prepared in the morning and we take a stroll to
school stretching the one minute walk down the road to 5. We’ll go the
more ‘scenic’ route looking in neighboring gardens and Emily likes to
point at and name the flowers each time we do.
Others I’m running around looking for something. Usually my phone, or
my sanity if it’s a Friday. Then I’ll realise as we’re about to leave
the house my daughter hasn’t yet washed her beautiful little face. And
I’ll take her to school anyway.
Sometimes I’ll hear one of them complain ‘I can’t find any clean socks’, and I’ll offer the solution of ‘wear yesterdays’.
Sometimes we’ll go out to eat and I’ll give them a little behavioral
prep talk and that ‘pleeeeease just. behave’ glare when I can see they
haven’t quite listened. Others I’ll think sod it, get it out of your
system and lie on the floor under the table if you must.
Sometimes when we tackle the dreaded task of food shopping, I’ll
quietly hurry behind them every time they run off in opposite
directions, then get down to their level and explain why it’s not
acceptable behavior. Others I’ll lose my patience and shout both their names
followed by ‘get back here. NOW’!!
Sometimes I have a run of taking the kids to every single party
they’re invited to. But sometimes I forget one, or we arrive late. By a
week. That’s happened before.
Sometimes I’m on a roll with the kids homework and ‘Weekend Diaries’.
But others I’ll spend 15 minutes on a monday morning searching through
the kitchen drawers for a pen, then I’ll scribble away and knock up a
story making their weekends sound so much more adventurous than they
actually were.
And after I’ve finished typing this I’m off on a hunt for twigs,
leaves and conkers to put into Emilys ‘Half-Term Treasure bag’ I
found inside her book bag. Thismorning
Sometimes I’ll yell at my kids. Sometimes I’ll laugh at them. But I always laugh with them
There’s some parents who appear to have it all together. Then there
are the rest of us. We aren’t lazy. We aren’t incompetent. We aren’t bad
parents. We’re still awesome, loving caring mums.
We’re just, for lack of a better term, a hot mess.
