I am not a perfectionist! I am not the perfect mom! I am just trying to raise my kids not to be jerks.

I think as moms we have such a high standard for ourselves.  We put such a weight on our shoulders that we need to be perfect.  Our house needs to be spotless, our kids need to have the cutest clean clothes on, we need to do all of the cute crafts and art projects, we need to eat organic free range antibiotic free food, and we need to have them in a ton of activities. We have to do it all, with a smile on our face and most of the time on little or no sleep.  However, we are not super woman.

At the end of the day, does that stuff matter?  When our kids are older will they remember how clean the house was or what we served them for dinner?

The most important thing is that we raise good kids, good humans, and not jerks.

I would hands down focus my energy on my kids and not on keeping up with the other moms.

In the world of social media, moms have such an extra pressure to “keep up appearances”.  We feel the need to brag that our kids are doing “cute things”, show the special trips we go on, the cute little outfits we dress them in, and the fancy dinners we prepare our families.

How often do you see someone post on Facebook a photo of their child having a complete and utter melt down in Target? An Instagram pic of a dirty house filled with toys?

You always feel like someone else is doing it better then you are as a mom. You feel like a failure.  Motherhood is tough enough without having that sinking feeling that “so and so” is doing it better than you.

Wouldn’t our energy be better spent on raising our kids, then putting up this fake front that we have our act together.

I am guilty of this too… hands down! Yes, we do the cute art projects but you don’t see the epic melt down when I have to take the glue away or the dog choking on the crayon under the table.

I try to make my kids’ childhoods fun and exciting, however my main priority is raising good kids! If my child is acting out I will call them out on it.  If we are planning on going to the park but there is a melt down over breakfast, then we will not go to the park. If we are eating out, which we hardly ever do, and there is some bad behavior we WILL leave and we have done so before we are done eating.  It’s important to me that my children learn that there are consequence for their actions.

I also raise my kids to be kind to others. We do a serve project once a month, or at least try too.  I don’t tend to post this on social media. We don’t do it for the attention, we do it because that is what you do! You give back to your community.

I will teach my kids to respect their elders. They know that you give police officers, firefighters, veterans, and medical personal the respect they deserve. It might not make me a cool mom when I have to stop and get down on their level to talk to them that we don’t yell at the man outside Walmart. I don’t care if I am blocking the entrance or if other people are looking.  I am doing my job as a mom.

As moms, our jobs are to be moms, to raise these little people not to be jerks. It’s not about competing with other moms on Facebook, or to post the most picture perfect moment on Instagram. It’s to raise those tiny humans to be good and decent people.