Perfect Moms Aren’t Found Here

I love writing. It comes naturally and I can create a prose of sentences to pull on the strings of you heart or with a few more strokes I can probably describe your day like it is in my home. If I try just a bit harder, I can create a picture perfect world, like the one I had on Christmas Eve, snow blanketing the ground perfectly while I warmed myself by the fire as my kids rolled into dreamland in their beds.

A picture of perfection is created in moments, mainly because of one little key that is always at the ready to for me to stroke it. In fact, my pinky finger glides across it often–if not 8 to 10 times in one single sentence. Delete.

It’s my safety net. I can write a whole book and if I don’t like what I read, then its a do-over, backspace, delete and try again. Life however does not have a delete button and there certainly aren’t any delete buttons around for my list of things to do. Instead, my list repeats itself in my mind as I pass by the laundry pile that is now Mt. Laundry. There is not delete button for the snippy tone I used with my kids this morning, racing out the door to get everyone to school.

I don’t recall a delete button for the dishes piled in the sink, the dust settling in the corners of my home, nor was there a delete button for all the pounds I’ve gained over Christmas break. Nor is there a delete button for misbehaving kids, tantrums in the middle of Target, over-committing one’s self and setting high expectations.

Jill Savage diagnoses my issues as the Perfection Infection and I think she’s on to something here. In here new book, No More Perfect Mom’s, I am struck with the reality of what is and that perfection is not. Tell me if you are possibly sick with the same virus.

• Messy house? Check.
• Feeling like a failure because messy house doesn’t look like a magazine. Check. Check.
• Special needs child. Check.
• Feeling like a failure because you must’ve done something to make her a special needs child. Check.
• You’re child misbehaved at school and punched another kid. Check.
• You’re wondering why other mom’s kids are so good and what went wrong with yours? Check Check.
• You’re hitting the Mc’D lane again, while those Pintrest meal ideas are flashing in brain? Check.
• You’re a ministry leader and a mom. Check.
• You limp out of those meetings feeling like a failure because it didn’t go as planned. Check.

Good! Then you and I are in the same boat. While we can’t delete these things, we can move forward and create a new perspective. With a simple stroke of my fingers, I can create a new mindset and I’ve got just the community and book to help you and I do it. Together you and I can take her month long challenge to find freedom being you, being me. You can sign up here.

Jill Savage addresses the Perfection Infection in her new book, No More Perfect Moms. Over these next couple of weeks as I read and review, I will be giving you my thoughts on her book and how it’s helping me in all things motherhood. As much as I’d rather have a delete key, having a community of moms willing to put the mommy wars and mommy comparisons aside makes the delete button needed less.

Stop by tomorrow as I give my thoughts about no more perfect moms (aka ME).