There's this thing that happens a lot, where we compare ourselves to others and decide everyone else has their life more together than we do. Other couples who seem to never fight. Other moms who have perfectly well behaved children. People who's house is always clean and have time to make dinner from scratch.
And it's not true. We know it's not true, but we see the pictures, or run into someone in a good day (or bad day) and judge them based on that impression. Because that must be what their life is always like, right?
You might have seen the picture I posted where my toddler was eating corn on the cob and spaghetti with meatballs and thought, wow, how does she get her toddler to eat so well? But maybe you missed the day before where he rejected all meals except two bites of a cookie, a handful of honey nut cheerios and the frosting end of a cupcake.
You probably saw all the pictures we posted of the family trip to the local farm where we pet the animals, ran in the fields and ate strawberry shortcake. I'm sure you didn't see me second guessing if I was a bad mom for also letting the toddler eat two donuts or for skipping the baby's nap even though he was tired and only wanted his crib.
You missed the diaper rash that's so bad it's bleeding and blistering and the phone call to the doctor and run to the pharmacy. And so many tears.
You missed the six drafts of the email and the practicing what I was going to say before I was finally able to raise an issue at daycare because no one teaches you how to do this stuff and suddenly you're a parent who needs to advocate for their kid. And that's hard.
The truth is, my life is both. It's both hard and fun. It's moments of confidence and I've got this, and second guessing and googling. And while I probably won't stop sharing the good pictures because I'm so excited to finally get one, I'll be sure to share the bad ones too. Because the truth is, both are true.
