Compassion Not Perfection

A new school year has begun. 

My calendar is packed with our new routines, sports, music lessons, homework, etc, etc, 

I feel the need to slow down and remind myself that perfection is impossible. 

And as someone who suffers from an anxiety disorder, I laugh in my own face.

But the fact still remains:

We, as mothers, put too much pressure on ourselves to have our shit together. 

Society puts too much pressure on mothers. 

Other mothers put too much pressure on us. 

The pressure comes in many forms; from waking up early to hit the gym, do our make up and hair, and cooking a homemade organic breakfast daily, to volunteering weekly at school, walking each child into their classes every single day with a perfectly fashionable outfit, and assembling organic bento box lunches with faces and designs, we are exhausted. 

Exhausted. 

We can't forget a project, we can't forget a snack, we can't forget a damn thing without unending guilt, placed upon us by ourselves or by others. 

Last year, I forgot to pick up my kids on early out day. TWICE. 

They ate more PBJ sandwiches for lunch than I can count. 

And I definitely forgot to pack their snack at least once weekly. 

This morning, I drove my kids to their new bus stop (we are out of zone for the school my kids attend so I take them about a mile down the road). There were a several moms there waiting with their kids. 

Wyatt, who as you know is special needs, starting having a sensory meltdown. 

He had been "off" since he woke up, so I was unsurprised. 

I started focusing on calming him, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking about being judged. The last thing I need to be occupying my brain space with during that time is what other moms think of me. And whether or not they were, I do not know, and I try not to care, but it is still what I have been trained to think of at a knee jerk response. 

So, as you also begin your new routines, schedules, and craziness, I implore you:

Have compassion. For yourself, for other moms, for your children, for everyone. 

None of us are perfect, none of us have our shit together. 

And that is perfectly acceptable.