Ups and downs

I was feeling pretty bad about my parenting skills the other night, after feeding Molly a dinner of Pirate's Booty and applesauce, when I saw a friend's status update on Facebook. She had a similar 'bad mom' evening and was also feeling down. Why do we beat ourselves up like this? I started feeling better when I saw all of the comments from her friends and other parents about their own parenting mistakes -- strength in numbers! -- but it made me question the ridiculously high expectations we have for ourselves, or put on each other, as parents. How will I handle things when the real you-know-what hits the fan?

I know I tend to sugar coat things, and for the most part, this is a sunny side up kind of a blog. But, but, but, parenting is not always easy and I think I need to acknowledge that a little more often. I spent so much time reassuring one of my coworkers about how she would totally be able to handle her new baby and full-time job, that I forgot to mention how freaking hard it is just to handle eating and sleeping those first few months. Whoops.

So far, in these first 2 and a half years of Molly's life, I've realized that things always get easier...and then they get harder...and then they get easier...and then they stay easy for a little while...and then there's a crisis...and then everything is okay...you get the idea. Parenthood is full of ups and downs. The ups are why we all love the job so much. The downs are okay and don't mean you're a bad parent. Your baby might not sleep, might not eat, or might cry for no reason. Your toddler might not play well with others. And I don't even want to think about what might happen during the teenage years.

No parent is perfect. As much as I'd like to be, I have to remember, there will be nights where Molly eats too much junk, watches too much TV, or gets less of my attention than she deserves. And that's totally fine...so long as there are other nights where she gets carrots on her plate, as many books as she wants (within reason), and more hugs and kisses than she can stand. It all evens out, right? Right?