So there’s this woman.
She’s a mom.
She’s happy.
She works full time.
She has a great job (or two).
She lifts.
She exercises.
She bakes.
She eats healthy.
She packs cool lunches for her kids.
She makes time for herself.
She makes time for her friends.
She looks polished and in cute outfits (most of the time).
She seems to have it all together, right? No issues or struggles…just a happy-go-lucky woman making it each day look easy and well put together, right? Think again. Because what you don’t see are the bags under her eyes before she puts on concealer every morning, the long days that turn into even longer nights. You don’t see the days where her emotions get the best of her or the days that she throws Lunchables in her kid’s lunchboxes because she’s simply too tired to pack a healthy lunch for them. You don’t see her struggle with eating that healthy meal when she really wants a Whopper and fries! You don’t see the days where she has to go into the bathroom and take a breather because she’s cleaned the last toilet and picked up the last piece of trash that someone else left on the floor. Or the morning that she throws her head down on the steering wheel after school drop off when her emotional child had a bad morning.
Mom life is hard sometimes. I know you feel it too. You want to quit sometimes. But what you need to know is that YOU matter so much right now. Your actions, your voice, your lessons, your late nights…they all matter. Driving them to dance class or gymnastics or soccer may not seem like a big deal to you right now, but believe me, just picking them up from school and being in the car with them matters. Hustling from drops offs back to work and adjusting your crazy schedule just to be an active part of their life, even if it’s for 10 minutes between carpooling from place to place…it matters. Every little thing you do right now, paves the way for their future. Every little thing you do for them, they see. You may not realize it right at this moment, but believe me when I tell you that YOU matter. They see it. They remember it. You just BEING there matters.
Sure you’ll mess up from time to time. Sure you’ll have a bad day here or there. Mistakes? I make them all the time. But the first thing I tell my girls is that my mistakes have helped me learn things that I could never have learned on my own. Mistakes lead to experience and experience isn’t something that can be taught. Do you know what’s cool about having bad days and making mistakes? They are usually followed by an amazing day here and there. You’ll have days where everything goes off without a hitch and everyone is smiling and happy. You make brownies that don’t burn and the house is clean and no one in the house is arguing. That’s just how it works. You take the bad with the good and know that your kids don’t care if you made them a gourmet meal or Kraft Mac n’ Cheese. They don’t care about the food. They care about the fact that YOU made it for them. That’s what they are going to remember.
You are so much more important than you think. When you’re having one of those days where you don’t think you can do it all and you’re just ready to throw in the towel and say forget it…remember that you really do matter. Every minute of every day…you matter. And if no one else tells you….I’m telling you now. Press play every day and always know that YOU MATTER!