Confessions of an Imperfect Mom

For some reason, this title for a post has been floating in my head for over a week. It certainly describes me (but I'm sure it describes us all...none of us are perfect and we're probably all too aware of our own mistakes).

So, perhaps to comfort other imperfect mothers or to let my kids know that I realize I'm not perfect or perhaps to urge myself to improve, here are a few (but certainly this is not an exhaustive list!) of ways that I am imperfect:

1... Sometimes our dinners (and often our lunches) consist of less healthy foods such as frozen pizza, hot dogs, or macaroni and cheese because I'm tired and in a hurry. (However, I must say that most nights I do try to cook a healthy meal and we do eat a lot of fruits and veggies around here...)

2. Sometimes on Saturdays or days off, I don't even brush my kids' hair and they choose their own clothes.

3. I yell at them. I try not to yell a lot, and I usually apologize when I lose my cool. But I do lose my cool.

4. I'd like to say that my children are being taught to clean and do chores, but I'm not as consistent at this as I should be. It often feels easier to do it myself. Alfredo often reminds me that, in the long run, it will make all of our lives easier if I teach them now to clean up after themselves. He is right, I know, and so I try... but as I said, I'm not as consistent as I should be.

5. I've bribed my kids on more than one ocassion. I've also not followed through on a few threats. Terrible, I know, but true...

6. I've had lazy days where they have watched tv while I napped on the couch beside them.

7. My baby, who is a climber and is not afraid of anything and is mischievious, is always getting into things. She's put makeup all over her face on a couple of ocassions, painted her body with paint and markers, climbed on a stool and gotten into cupboards,and decided to give herself a bath in the bathroom sink. We are very fortunate that she hasn't been hurt, because you literally can't turn your back on her for more than a minute. And sometimes, her busy mom (that's me!) turns her back for 4 or 5 minutes.

8. I am still working on teaching them...I'm not as consistent as I need to be with scripture study. We've improved (but are still imperfect) at FHE and family prayer.

9. After dealing with discipline problems at school all day, I sometimes let behaviors slide that I probably shouldn't. I don't let them get away with anything too terrible, and they really are good kids...but there are things I should be more strict about.

That said, I do realize that I also have strengths as a mom. I don't think I'm a terrible mom, only a work in progress. Isn't that one of the great things (and hard things) about life...we're all still learning and growing? And these sweet, precious children are each so different...and they don't come with user manuals! So we learn as we go, we make mistakes and we keep trying to improve.