ROOTED IN LOVE â—½ ENCOURAGEMENT
There’s no such thing as a perfect parent. As much as we all want to be, it won’t ever happen. Everyone has areas of strength, and everyone has areas of weakness. No one can do it all perfectly.
So much goes into parenting, it can be exhausting trying to do it all well. Making healthy meals, discipline, doing fun activities, sports, vacations, education, playdates, chores, church, managing screen time. All of it can add up and become pretty overwhelming, especially if you think you have to get them all right all the time.
Obviously, it’s important for us as parents to always give our best. We love our kids, and we want them to have happy and healthy lives. We want to show them what it means to work hard and also to have fun. We want to give them every possible advantage and opportunity that we can.
But the truth is that sometimes we’re going to mess up, and that’s okay. Perfection isn’t in the job description when it comes to parenting. In fact, trying
​to be perfect as a parent only teaches your kids to strive for something unattainable. Anybody who wants to be perfect at everything will only ever be disappointed.
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I’m not saying we shouldn’t try, and I’m not saying we should have a defeatist attitude either. I mean that we should give ourselves grace in the parenting arena, just like we would do for anybody else. So you had to eat frozen pizza twice in a week, or your kids wore dirty clothes to school, or you didn’t have time to scrub the toilet this week. It’s okay! I guarantee that your worst critic is yourself. Your children still love you when you mess up. They still love you when you struggle. They still love you when you’re stressed and overwhelmed.
The times when we mess up are great teaching opportunities. Being a parent doesn’t mean you won’t make mistakes, but that just means you have more chances to set an example. Executing everything perfectly isn’t nearly as important as modeling good reactions when things aren’t perfect. How you handle difficulty is a greater teaching tool than never messing up.
So when you feel like you don’t measure up, just remember that everyone is different. You don’t have to look like Susie down the road, and you don’t have to do it all. Loving your kiddos and giving your best is all you really need.