Not Supermom

I could be wrong about this, but I think that when my mom and grandma were raising kids, they didn't think much about what kind of mom they were or wanted to be. They didn't read blogs about how to decorate their kids' rooms like Martha Stewart on a $5 budget and facebook entries (complete with photographs) about all the fabulous back-to-school traditions they had with their kids. They didn't read 50 parenting books a year and try to put them all into practice. They didn't sit around analyzing how they measured up to the image they had of supermom.

Times have changed. I've been a mom for a dozen years now including the pregnancy, during which I was already playing the comparison game (which birthing method is best? is her new high chair better than mine? have I ruined my child for life because I didn't cut out sugar during pregnancy like that mom did?). I've been on the illusive quest for all these years to do it all. Every good idea I heard, I tried to implement. Fun activities with the kids. Keeping a clean house. Scheduling my day so that I could devote the best of myself to my kids.

But I've decided I'm done with all of that. I don't think I'm serving my kids well if I'm constantly comparing and second-guessing and trying to do more, more, more. I want to be a good enough mom.

What does that look like? I'm not sure yet, but I think it starts with focusing on what's important. Concentrating on how I measure up to God's Word, not creative supermom, godly as she may be. Doing what I am called to do, not what someone else might be called to do. You're welcome to join me on this journey toward good-enoughness as I try to figure it out. I hope that when I write something (and no promises on how often that might be) and when someone actually reads it (which I'm not counting on), they come away encouraged that this parenting journey--or even this life journey--doesn't have to be so complicated.

And since every good blog has pictures, here's one of my good-enough kids. Aren't they cute?