Parenting Failures – They Happen

Eeeep, the dark secrets we don’t necessarily want to share. . . The moments in our everyday lives we hate to admit. Oh, but Mama, (or Papa), you’re not alone. We all make mistakes and we make decisions we’re not necessarily happy with. If you’re reading this thinking to yourself, “ha, if she only knew”, keep reading. If you’re reading this thinking, “no way, I’ve got my parenting swag on”. . . you can probably just ignore this. LOL. Honestly, sometimes our parenting skills are seriously on point! And others, not so much.

For starters, parenting is hard. No one is perfect. And there is definitely NO one way that works for ALL type of plan. As parents, our lives most likely flipped upside down when we had kids and we have had quite a bit of learning to do. With all of the ca-razy advice we get as new parents, it’s no wonder why we freak out, pull our hair out and just flat out have mess ups. The thing is, our parents have stories too! They had and probably STILL have their moments. . . some we know about and others, they may have sworn each other to secrecy.

I really want this to be a safe place for you all. So, let’s be honest. I have messed up. I have had my fair share of blunders and I know I will have more to come. And guess what!? My kids are alive! We kept the tiny humans alive!! Even though we feel that all the odds are stacked against us, we do our best and figure it out. And thank God, babies are pretty resilient!

So, what Parenting Failures have I made? Oh geeze, probably too many. Here are a few eye rollers for starters. . .

Right after a full feeding, swinging baby through the air to capture giggles seems like a fine idea. . . until it’s not. Baby threw up everything all over dad.
Ooooh, look at the bouncy ball go everywhere. Look at how I can catch it after it goes way up high in the air (INSIDE the house). Such enjoyment!!! . . . until Baby takes a turn and throws the ball and almost knocks mom out. Sure, let’s teach her to throw balls inside the house. (Double eye-roll.)
One of my favorites. . . Playing Peek A Boo with the table cloth at a friends house. SO cute!! . . . until Baby is down from her highchair and thinks it’s her turn to play Peek A Boo. . . Hey, at least dinner was over and there was less food that went flying everywhere. . .?
“I swear it was out of reach” are so many parents’ famous words after some sort of disaster. Well, I swear my hot pink lipstick was well out of reach, . . . until Baby was left alone for literally 30 seconds while I turned around to put something away. I turned around and she managed to have it uncapped and made a very interesting version of Joker’s lip look in Batman.
We all get the giggles. Unfortunately, some of those outbursts come at the worst time. An example of this is when our daughter was being very rude and over the top. (Hello, “threenager”!) In this moment our son decided to hit his big sister with a three foot shovel. (It was plastic!!! But it still hurt.) Hubs let out a loud laugh and then tried to hold it in, and I followed. Geeze, then little guy thought it was a game and our little girl was SO mad. One of the biggest struggles as a parent at times is not busting up in laughter when your kid does something they’re not supposed to do. Oye.

Any of you nodding your head back and forth in your hand? Or raising your hands full force, thinking, “Totally me!!!”? Parenting is a full on adventure and no one said it would be easy. Fortunately, a lot of our blunders we can look back on and laugh at. (Hopefully.) There are also moments that I lose my temper and seriously feel like I need to give myself a time out on. There are other moments that we want to pull our hair out and end up in tears. Take it as a stage, a right, a passage. . . “This too shall pass”. Keep your chin up; you’re not alone. We do our best and hope that they forget most of it and remember us as the amazing parents we would love to be. So, let’s be honest, Parenting Failures – they happen! The most important thing I think we can do is take note that it wasn’t our strongest moment, take a breath and move on with the best intentions.