12

It’s a Jungle Out There

I have a confession to make:  I’ve judged you.  And I know you’ve judged me.

That moment we’re dragging our screaming toddler by the leg out of the grocery store; that time we let our child eat nothing but fruit snacks for a week, and those many times we’ve came over to your “just got bombed” disaster of a house.

Am I proud of this? Definitely not.  Will I do it again? Probably, I’m not perfect.  Does it hurt? Like a Mother….

Recently, a dear friend and I started talking about surviving Mommy-hood and how challenging it is.  It’s not easy, and for any of you out there that will say otherwise, I have a large wooden spoon with your name on it.  The daily adventure  just to be a great decent mother and wife is a battle all in its own, and then you step out of your house!

In Lorilee Craker’s Just Give Me a Little Peace of Quiet devotional for moms, she expressed my thoughts perfectly….

“The longer I’m a mother, the more I see that we mom’s need to be each other’s cheerleaders.  We all have issues that, for whatever reason, are vital to our mothering, but to impose our standards and choices on other moms is shortsighted and selfish.  Instead of judging, we need to adopt a “live and let live” attitude about other moms and focus on our own efforts to be the women and mothers God called us to be.”

Can I get an amen!

We women need to surround each other with love, give encouragement, show a little compassion and just be down right honest with one another.

With the rise of social medias, it is so easy to deceive and picture  together what looks like to the rest of us, this beautiful picture of your “perfect” day.  When in reality, you’re seconds away from locking your children outside, dinner is setting off every smoke alarm in the house and you haven’t washed your hair (let alone shaved your legs) in 4 days.   True story.

I guess my rickety soap box rant today is just to share my frustration not only with myself, but with my fellow women and mothers.  It’s really hard for me to help/encourage/pray for you, and you for me, when we put up a false Stepford front.  I know and you know, it’s not always a well weeded bed of roses….shoot, I can’t even keep anything alive!

In honor of being completely honest with you…here is a no filter, no make-up, no shower photo of me at this very moment, and although dinner is in the crockpot, my legs need to be shaved, my toilets are dirty, toys are EVERYWHERE, and at one point in the past two days I honestly thought my toddler needed to be socked in the face.   Motherhood: never a dull moment.

So, let us stop the petty judgements, lack of support and darn right nastiness, and instead help one another embrace the wonderful craziness that God has blessed us with!

Comments 12

    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author
  1. I could not agree more Mallory! As I was reading this I can picture the mess that awaits me at home: the pile of laundry in my garage, and the pile of clean unfolded laundry on my couch, the dirty dishes in the sink, the crumbs on the floor, the dirty bathrooms….I could go on and on. Ultimatley when we all realize we are not the only ones dealing with these issues we can take some pressure off ourselves and embrace being imperfect!

    1. Post
      Author
  2. Makeup or no makeup, I am ALWAYS blown away at how gorgeous you are(I hope you haven’t caught me staring at you). You are an incredible mother, wife, and woman! Way to be a total rock star!!!

    1. Post
      Author
  3. Well said Mal! I was just talking to someone about this the other day, how alienating social media can be…sometimes it makes me feel like other mom’s are so much better than me and I’m failing by having a messy house and screaming children! Thank you for being so honest! Were all in it together! PS…I think my toddler might do well from being socked from time to time as well

    1. Post
      Author

      Christy, I love you and the fact that you think a good done in love socking would be good for your toddler also! And you are far from failing! I see your pictures and read your posts and you are an amazing mama to two wonderful little boys! keep up the good work!

  4. Nice Mal!! Now Liam is going to run into something get a black eye and you are going to get arrested for punching him in the face!!

    Beyond that you do a great job keeping your house clean!! If I ever walk into a house with 2 boys your age and there is not toys everywhere and some kind of mess somewhere that needs to be cleaned up then the parents should be charged with child abuse.

    I

    1. Post
      Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *