Thanks so much for joining us for our Encouragement for Imperfect Moms Series (formerly Imperfect Mom Confessional)! We hope you'll be blessed, encouraged, challenged and comforted all at once. Please let us know if you need prayer - we'd love to pray for you!

 

 

Some days it is not easy to be a mother. I have known this for a long time, but never had it been so apparent as when when my 3rd little one showed up. He is so cute, smells so great – I love newborn smell – and he is up all. night. long. I could handle that a lot better if he were my first but these days I have to keep daytime hours with “the terrible twosome.”

My middle child began walking the day we brought my sweet baby boy home. I guess she saw that she was not going to be carried as much, and took mobility matters into her own hands. Now she is into everything. She is your typical toddler. She moves at lightning speed. You know when it’s quiet, she is up to no good. To make matters worse she is always under my feet, or hanging on my clothing.

One day in particular, she was everywhere! She was in the kitchen cabinets ripping out my potholders, in the bathroom unraveling the toilet paper, in the school room ripping up a notebook…I’d turn from cleaning one mess only to discover the next.

It did not help the situation that my baby boy had been up on and off throughout the night. He was gassy, hungry and wanted to be held. All of the things a normal baby goes through. I couldn’t be mad at that. My toddler, she was just being a toddler as well. My frustration with the situation was quickly mounting as my to-do list was falling further and further behind schedule.

My oldest child had been working on his phonics lesson from his tablet. He was quiet that morning, doing all his work from the couch in our living room. He went to reach for a cup of milk and knocked it over. I heard the cup spill, and that was it – I lost my mind!

I couldn’t believe he had just created another mess to clean. I screamed, and he looked up at me in shock. He apologized with these big, sad eyes. I realized then, that all morning long he had not caused me an ounce of trouble. Here he had just made a simple mistake.

How could I have expected perfection from him, simply because he was my oldest? In fact how could I expect perfect of anyone, including myself? My children are human, as am I. We make mistakes and we get overwhelmed and things happen beyond our control.

I did my best to quickly clean the milk, then placed the youngest two down for their naps. I kissed each one on the forehead and apologized. Then I sat down beside my oldest. I held him in my arms and apologized to him, and explained how I felt overwhelmed. I told him I was sorry for yelling, but also for expecting too much of him, and of myself. You know what he told me?

“Mom, you’re perfect the way you are.”

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Holly ChubbAbout the Author, Holly Chubb: My name is Holly. I am a freelance writer and accidental blogger and amateur graphic designer. I got started with my graphics hobby by creating printables for homeschooling my son. I then started a blog to share my printables and my homeschooling journey and things sort of took off from there. I am a wife to an awesome husband, a mother to three children lovingly referred to as “the Fraggles” and I run on Starbucks. My life with the Fraggles is a chaotic adventure and I enjoy *most* every minute of it. Visit my blog, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.

 

 

 

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