My daughter is always dressed (wellies and PJ's do count), sometimes clean, mostly brushes her teeth, about every 3 days has clean hair and some days will eat something other than peas - all achievements with a toddler in my book.
But what makes an awesome mum these days? Do such women exist? Shouldn't we all just be happy doing our very best however good that may be?
I don't bake with my daughter (mainly as I just don't bake), when she paints I am constantly cleaning the paint she spills as she goes, sometimes I don't wait for her to ask me to watch Finding Nemo I put it on so I can sit down for 5 minutes and have a sneaky peak on my phone over her shoulder as she snuggles me. She eats way too many Marks & Spencer meals (at least its M&S!), is normally covered in dog hair or letting the dogs lick her hand (immune system made of iron though) and has at least 2 items of clothing in her wardrobe which came home as spare change of clothes from nursery- oh the shame.
Some days my house is tidy (normally on a Wednesday for an hour after the cleaner has been), I sweep my kitchen floor 57 times a day (bloody dogs), I am a terrible cook and have only just learnt how to make an omelette (I am 32).
There's a bit of a trend at the moment about being open and honest when it comes to parenting. Brags about things we don't do with our kids or epic parenting fails are becoming more common than the wonderful things we all do. Ok so it's funnier to write about the epic fails but is it really becoming uncool to just be a mediocre mum? Not super mum or shit mum but mediocre mum?
I might be slack sometimes but I try to do some cool things with my daughter. I take her to see the goats down the road from us, we laugh hysterically when they try to take the grass from her hands (she laughs at them, I laugh at her), I take her swimming, to rhythm time class and baby ballet. We walk round the nature reserve with our dogs picking up sticks and stones and other things which on reflection probably shouldn't have been picked up. We go to the beach and search for crabs and the woods and search for Gruffalo's.
Some women take to motherhood like a 21 year old to a 2 for 1 shot night others find it harder to adjust. I think the majority of us are probably somewhere smack, bang in the middle.
No one finds every day of parenting a breeze and I refuse to believe anyone who says they do. We are living with an unpredictable weather force, an El Nino, a hot, thundery day or a warm, clear blue skies day - we have no way of knowing what the weather truly will be like until it wakes up and starts the day. It always nerve wracking those first few minutes. I find with Lil initially she's smiley and chatty and we discuss the weather when I open her blinds but its normally when I try to get her out of her cot and undressed to change her nappy that El Nino suddenly comes into full force. Batten down the hatches it's going to be a long day.......
Here's the truth, super mum does not exist and nor does shit mum. We all have our super moments and we all have our shit moments, even if we try to hide them for comedy effect. There is nothing wrong with being mediocre mum. Mediocre mum has moments of sheer brilliance (I note my genius idea of filling up Ikea ice lolly makers with Innocent Smoothie cartons so I didn't have to actually concoct something) and moments she would rather forget (I note the day Lil ate nothing but ketchup for her dinner, don't ask).
Not every day is full of sweet smelling roses, smelling something perhaps but if you all make it to the end of the day relatively unscathed then it's been a pretty good day!
Keep doing what you are doing mediocre mums!
This post was originally published on my blog www.humpbumpandbaby.com where you can find more of my ramblings!