Fellow Parents: Congrats on Surviving Thanksgiving “Vacation”

"There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one." -Sue Atkins

[My real cute but not so much real life Thanksgiving family pic.]

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Fellow parent: do you hear that? That’s the sound of gloriously sweet silence on a Monday morning.

Congratulations. You made it through five (or more) consecutive days with your kids out of school. You lived to tell the tale.

If you’re like me, your children are one of the most amazing and exhausting things that’s ever happened to you. My littles are smart, curious, kind, opinionated, energetic... and time consuming.

I began the Thanksgiving holiday with a long, thoughtful detailed itinerary of fun kid stuff we would do together: Uno tournaments, adventure walks, Candyland competitions, museums, black Friday shopping, and more.

But by late Sunday afternoon, I was plopped down on the couch- worn out, staring at the clock, waving the white flag of parental defeat, and wondering how early of a backwards bedtime I could get away with. Backwards bedtime is an attempt to protect parental sanity where you move bedtime up earlier, or “backwards,” to get a few more minutes of kid-free time in. Pro-tip: it’s easier to successfully pull off backwards bedtime in the fall/winter (ie, now) when the sun goes down sooner in the day. Sunset occurs today at 4:43 ppm…just sayin’.

We spend so much time talking about how wonderful parenting is that we sometimes forget how difficult it truly is. Just pull up your friends’ social media pictures from the last five days for proof. I’m guilty as charged. On my Instagram account you’ll see a perfect family standing calmly by the Christmas tree. My three-year-old daughter is wearing an ironed red dress, matching shiny red shoes, and a centered red hair bow. She is smiling ear to ear. You won’t see the five minutes prior where she is running through the house, wearing only a poopy pull-up and the red hair bow around her left ankle, screaming, I only want to wear my Cinderella dress!

[Real life Thanksgiving day pic.]

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So today I’m keeping it real. Like anything worth doing, parenting is a mix of the wonderful and the terrible, the amazing and the awful, the calm and the chaos.

So fellow mommas and daddies, give yourself a big pat on the back. Pour yourself an extra cup of coffee today. I see you. You’re doing difficult, worthy work. And you got this! One poopy pull-up at a time.

-Lauren

Have any other good parenting hacks? Drop me a note and let me know!