Motherhood is hard enough without life throwing you a curve ball. When something unexpected happens, it can be hard to see past the chaos and you may lay your head down at night feeling defeated and discouraged and not enough. I know because I’ve been that mom, and I’ll be that mom again someday since life is full of unfortunate surprises and unavoidable tough experiences. Maybe you are learning how to be a single parent or navigating a divorce, maybe you are are caring for a sick or differently able child, maybe you recently lost somebody close to you, maybe you are making a big decision that will impact your child, maybe you are processing a trauma, maybe things are just hard right now and you can’t quite put your finger on it. I don’t know exactly what you might be up against, but I do know a few things that will hopefully be encouraging or helpful.
1. This is just a season.
Whatever you are facing, and more importantly how you feel about it, will not last forever- try to cling to that, especially on the hardest days.
2. In most cases, any mistakes you might make in the process are fixable.
You are not perfect, and you will make mistakes while walking this new unknown journey. That’s okay. Mistakes can be an opportunity for us to show our children the art of apologizing and making things right. If you fall, just get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward.
3. You are allowed to have and express your feelings.
If what you are walking through is sad/scary/infuriating/isolating/whatever, it’s okay to feel that way and show those emotions in appropriate ways. You can’t always be the brave one who holds it all together.
4. You are not alone.
I can almost guarantee that whatever you are facing is something that somebody has walked through before- look online and see if there is a blog about it. Even if you don’t have anyone in your immediate circle who has gone through a similar experience, be sure to let people in. As an “outsider” they will be able to look at your situation in a unique way and maybe point out some good things going on that you can’t see.
5. If you are doing your best, then you are doing enough and you are enough.
Don’t waste your time comparing how you are navigating this season to how some other mom handled it. We can each only put forth our best effort. Plus- you never know what was going on for that mom when nobody was looking. Don’t compare your worst moment to somebody else’s highlight reel.
