The Award We All Win: Worst Mom of the Year
It’s a feeling all Moms share, a crown that all of us wear from time to time.
We feel this burden of guilt bearing down on our shoulders like a personally hand-crafted rhinoceros.
- A little finger gets pinched in a door – I’m the worst Mom EVER!
- Needing a break and letting the TV be the in-house babysitter for a little too long – I’m the worst Mom EVER!
- We lose our cool a little too fast and react to a little person with our BIG emotions – I’m the worst Mom EVER!
- Along those same lines, we might slip and use one of those words that we should never use around little ears – I’m the worst Mom EVER!
- A fever goes unnoticed because we’re busy making dinner and feel just as hot as any fever– I’m the worst Mom EVER!
- Our kids act out in some dreadful way in public, leading us to fear the judgments of other shoppers, tourists, and people that don’t have kids yet so they couldn’t possibly understand that they really are good kids but they’re just 1) tired, 2) hungry, 3) over-stimulated, 4) teething, 5) in a stage where they need to learn about boundaries, etc – I’m the worst Mom EVER!
I think it important to say to Mothers everywhere that these feelings are just as normal and natural as the pains of childbirth that got you into this situation in the first place. I think that the trouble lies in the isolating impression that we’re the only one making mistakes and holding onto that rhinoceros sized guilt longer than necessary because of it.
Don’t do it.
We’ve all been there, we’ve all felt this, and the great news is that this crown is one that YOU take off. Let the moment go, evaluate how to handle things in the future, throw that crown in the trash because it isn’t true, and pour out your love on your kids.
From one Worst Mom to all others – we really aren’t so bad. : )
December 8th, 2009 at 1:51 am
I TOTALLY feel like that all the time. I am constantly asking my husband if I’m a horrible mother. Sometimes we have this stupid belief that everyone else is ‘getting it’ when it comes to parenting and we are just stumbling around in the dark.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:39 am
You are sooo right. Only moms put that crown on and we really need to give ourselves (and eachother) a break! I’ve been guilty of it so many times, but Coen loves me regardless so I should remember that when I’m having a pity party.
On a note of worst mom of the year…I thought I was being an awesome mom, Coen is learning how to sound out words, exciting, right? We were at a restaurant so I was trying to find an easy word on the board to help him sound out. We were at a Mexican place, so it was a little tough. I finally found a word that would be easy for him, it wasn’t exactly the most wholesome word ever, but my kid’s reading, it didn’t matter. So as he sounded out B-E-E-R, and was quite proud of himself for getting it, I turned and saw a mother who was absolutely beet red and in shock for what I had just helped my son read. I felt a little bad, and started to take the worst mom crown out, but stopped myself. I smiled and looked right at her and said “that’s the first word he’s sounded out without any help” and praised him like crazy. It’s all about perspective, right?
January 24th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
I have seen some crappy posts but this one really impresses me. Good work!