There is one post that I wrote several years ago. More people emailed me in response to that post than almost any other. It has also been posted on the Family Matters blog HERE. It’s one of my favorites because I was able to be very honest. All of us moms have three things in common:

1. We really want to be great moms.
2. We think we are failing miserably at being great moms.
3. We still want other people to think we are great moms.

I was at the park the other day with my girls and an elderly woman asked me if I was a nanny. No, ma’am. These are all mine. She told me how cute they were {which I loved} and then told me how amazing of a mom I was to bring them all with me {as if I could have left a couple behind.} I’ll be honest, I used to eat up all of the “you’re such an amazing mom” comments because I was so desperate to be an amazing mom.

The truth is, however, that there are days I totally mess up. There are moments that I long to re-do. There are times when I’m selfish. There are behind-the-scenes moments that no one would look at and call amazing. Grace, ya’ll. I’m desperate for it. Grace that would cause my children to remember the good way more than the bad. Grace that would flow anew each morning and allow me to try again. Grace that would replace my grumpiness with gentleness. Grace that would remind me that reading to a child is more important than washing the dishes.

So, to balance out all of my “look I made homemade play doh” and “look at me taking all of my kids to the park by myself” posts – here is my part II response to a question I hear all of the time: How do you do it all?

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Confession time…

When I tell my children to brush their teeth, they often respond with, “Why? Are we going somewhere?”

When I open one of the car doors, there is a really good chance something is going to fall out: a piece of junk mail, a toy, a kid. {In my defense, I have a lot of kids.}

There are days when Pop tarts and a glass of milk constitute lunch and I no longer apologize for it. {Sometimes, I throw a banana on the plate to make it look better.}

I have stood on the deck and yelled, “Dry it up!” to a crying child in the yard only to realize that the neighbors were also standing on their deck. {Hi, mom of the year here, nice to meet you.}

I have watched an entire episode of Sesame Street only to realize there were no kids in the room and I wasn’t really sure when they left. {C is for cookie.}

Sometimes, I declare it pajama day just to save on laundry. {That’s five outfits I don’t have to wash – do the math and you’ll be declaring your own weekly pajama day.}

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So, how about you? Any confessions you want to make?