Recently, a friend of mine posted a confession on her Facebook page.  Basically, she had a pretty rough week, one of the kids wanted donuts and fried chicken for dinner, so she sent her husband to pick them up at the grocery store.  Happy kids, immediate problem solved.  When I read it, I chuckled and though, “been there”.

After a little while I got to thinking.  I was really happy that she bared her “mother of the year” moment.  In this picturesque, how does she do it all, age of Pinterest, I’m glad she was honest.  Sometimes it’s really hard to juggle kids, work, relationships and a household.  Sometimes one (or more) of the balls gets dropped and all we can do is pick up donuts and chicken for dinner.

I’ve had a few “mother of the year” moments of my own, but there are too many to list here.  My honorable mentions include sending questionably healthy kids to school because I really didn’t want to stay home (Florence Nightingale I am not) and uncontrollable laughter when my child walked straight into a store display (I did warn her).  It will be interesting in ten or twenty years to hear from my kids what my shortcomings as a mom are.  Those probably won’t even make their lists.

As mom we all are happy to share our perfect birthday parties, nutritionally rich meals and sitcom worthy family outings.  We all have those moments, they’re fun to share.  But, why don’t we share more of the messiness and fatigue of the trenches?  Maybe it’s because we’re just too tired and exhausted to type or be funny about it?  There’s a lot of reward to being a mom, but there’s a lot of exasperation too.

What makes it worse is that there’s a lot of judgment that goes on among moms. We’re all challenged with this monumental task of raising healthy, happy, well-rounded little humans and instead of supporting one another we judge each other.

• Working at a Career Moms v. Working at Home Moms
• Conventionally Grown Food Eaters v. Organically Grown Food Eaters
• Public School v. Private School
• Screen Time for Kids v. No Screen Time for Kids
• The list goes on and on….

I know it’s not easy, but let’s detach from the competition and judgement among moms.  Can we just appreciate that our experiences are just that and don’t have to be measured against another’s?  We are all good at our thing and can all use a little help in one area or another.  Let’s appreciate when the “aww” Instagram photo is posted as much as the oh sh*&, I was supposed to bring treats moment.

So, I’m taking nominations for Mother of the Year 2014.  What’s your favorite not-so-stellar mom moment?  C’mon, you know you have one.

Enjoy the Journey, even if you get lost or someone pukes along the way!

Suzanne