Yesterday I saw an image on Facebook that made me feel a lot better about myself. It read "being a beautiful mother isn't about how you look, but how you live." The image showed a mother reading to her two young children in a robe, with her wet head wrapped up in a towel & glasses on.
I immediately sent this to my best friend Brittany. We always talk about how we have to strategize to take baths somedays, how we only care for makeup on special occasions, and our children are our #1 priority.
I am not the perfect mother by any means. I get easily overwhelmed, frustrated, and sometimes feel like I'm running an insane asylum. My house is never perfectly cleaned. I never wear makeup at home because my husband is amazing and actually prefers when I don't wear it! My hubby also works two jobs to support me being a SAHM, while saving for our future home to be built on our land. I watch Yo Gabba Gabba with my son on a daily basis while dancing & singing along (even in the car sometimes). I talk to my cat like she is my child (I love my cat more than some people love their children, and yes, she is my furbaby!). That is my life in a nutshell.
I haven't placed anything else before my children. Too often I've seen kids shuffled around because their parents don't have time for them because they won't MAKE time for them. I'm not knocking people with jobs because I know you have to support your family. However going out to bars EVERY weekend and getting plastered to the walls isn't a valid excuse for ditching your children in my book. My weekends mainly consist of spending time with my husband and children at my parents to cookout and swim. Every other Saturday I do my grocery shopping and occasionally me and my husband go out to eat and to a movie.
Another pet peeve of mine is that I hear too many people say they need "me time". My husband about has to break my arm for me to even go pick up food from a drive-thru without one or both of the kids. My purse is always packed with a diaper, a pull-up, big boy undies & a bag of Cheerios or Goldfish depending on my son's current favorite snack food. My husband and I are even seriously thinking of homeschooling our son & daughter. I consider myself lucky to not have this so-called "me time" be a part of my routine.
So for anyone who has seen me at home or out in public without makeup and rocking some pajamas I apologize for my appearance. However, I won't apologize for making sure that my children look good, are clean & happy. My kids won't care when they look back at all of the pictures that mommy wasn't wearing makeup. They will care that they had a mommy who raised them herself and had fun with them!