My friend, Nicole, has a great post today about keepin’ it real in blogging. The idea is that many times us blogger mama’s tend to keep things positive and not really show the messy in life.
It can be very deceptive and even discouraging when it seems that these people you read and grow to love are perfect mothers who always prepare fresh, organic fare for their children, have a hot meal on the table when their husbands get home and smell of roses when they sweat.
In general I think I have a pretty good balance on this here blog. I’ve let you know the times when my heart has been heavy, I told you I clap my hands at my kids, and who can forget this little escapade? But, for the most part, I like to keep things light on my blog. I don’t record every single thing we are doing in our lives here – first because that would be incredibly boring and second – because the world doesn’t need to know everything.
So today, in an effort to keep it real, I share with you some of the bad/funny moments in my home.
– My youngest child woke up in the middle of the night last night and wouldn’t go back to to sleep so I finally put him in his crib where he cried loud and hard for an hour and a half. And I put the pillow over my head and attempted to go back to sleep.
– When his loud crying woke up Tia, I plopped her back in bed and when she started crying I shushed her sternly, threatening to throw away her Halloween candy if she woke Sloan up. (I did apologize for being so harsh this morning. In my defense it was 4:30 am and I’d already been awake for an hour and a half.)
– While I know that I should be working with Sloan every day on his English reading and his russian homework, I often times talk myself out of it simply because I’m lazy and don’t feel like it. I’m working on being more diligent so that I can pass that on to my children. It’s hard.
– I am over committed this holiday season. It’s almost feeling out of hand and all I can think is that I just need to get through the next 6 weeks and it will all get better.
– I suffer from mommy guilt a lot. I am constantly thinking about how I could have/should have done something better in my parenting (a post about how we are learning to parent intentionally is coming tomorrow). I have to work hard not to get bogged down in that attitude.
– I spend too much time on the computer. I’m working really hard at limiting my internet time so that I’m focusing more on my kids and my house. Is there a 12 – step program for that?
– My third born is a terrible eater. And I’ve never had a terrible eater before so I don’t know what to do with him. So many times I just let him drink his meals. This morning he had a cup of Emergen-C and a cup of diluted antioxidant water and two bites of pancakes. He just refuses to eat. It’s insane!
– I’m not very good at grocery shopping. I always spend a ton of money yet never seem to have anything for dinner. I know, I know – I should plan out my meals in advance so I get the right ingredients and save money…
– I’m not overly organized – see above.
– Sometimes I don’t start dinner until 5:00, which means we eat a lot of pasta and other quick and easy meals. Again, see above.
– Sometimes I drop my kids off in child care at the gym, then I go sit in the hot tub instead of working out.
Okay, that’s enough confessing for now. What about you all? Do any of you have any confessions you’d like to make? Do share.
Oh, and I do smell like roses when I sweat so I’ve got that going for me…
I love this, Kelli. Thanks for sharing. It does make me feel more normal to see the “real” people out there on the blogs instead of the perfect life we often try so hard to portray. I’ll work on my confession list. 🙂
Kel,
He he he he…well, considering my blog is called Quiet Gardens, Raging Seas…I figure people kinda get that they are getting the real me when they come to my blog! I have struggled the past two years with having a good balance on my blog. Lots of sad and hard things have happened in our life and I don’t want to act like that isn’t real. But I also don’t want to forget that in the midst of sorrow and tough times, there are some pretty funny moments along the way. And, I want to remember all the ways that God showed His face and extended His hands to us to bring us through it all.
Regardless, I think it is REALLY challenging for people to trek with people through sad things for any amount of time beyond one month. Not kidding!
I think both you and Nicole have a great balance in your blogs and I appreciate the perspectives both of you have as you write. You do a good job showing your life in a way that encourages others and documents your highs and lows. And honestly, isn’t that what we all say constantly about our blogs? That we want them to serve as a reminder to us of all life has brought us through?
Great post to you and Nicole!
great post, love it!
As I posted on Nicole’s blog, there are a lot i could do, but i’ll just do one…
my kitchen floor is currently littered with cheerios and goldfish, and instead of sweeping it up every 5 minutes like i did yesterday, i’m wearing shoes today so i don’t crunch them with bare feet!
HA! Erika – I hear you. There have been times where I’ve literally gone weeks upon weeks (that sounds better than months) without mopping the kitchen. And yes – I sometimes wear shoes so I don’t have to think about the mess.
Oh, I wear shoes all day long for this reason! 🙂 I’ll only go barefoot right after I’ve swept!
I simply don’t post when I don’t have up/happy things to say. This means that posting for the last 1/2 year has been sparse at best. We moved & I went into a depression.
It’s easier to say this on someone else’s blog when I know my mother & other close people won’t be reading it.
Oh, and I don’t mop my floors. They go until hubby can’t stand it & he does it. Yay for small wins!
At the end of the day, your kids are happy, have full tummies, and warm beds. When they grow up they won’t remember the dirty floor or piles of laundry. But they will remember that you played with them. Now they may also remember that you took their dolls head off to try to fix it, but certainly not a quick pasta dinner! And I once told my daughter to go back to bed when she fell out of her bed in the middle of the night and came crying to me. I felt really bad when I got her out of bed the next morning and her eye was swollen shut from having hit it on the bed rail.But she doesn’t remember that … do you, Kelli? So love your babies, put on shoes to walk in the kitchen, and enjoy this hectic stage of life you are navigating. It passes much too fast, and you can never go back.