I met a new friend the other day and the attraction was instant. There was the initial introduction, where do your kids go to school, ‘oh we have so-in-so in common’ but then — miraculously — we dove deep, and there it was, in all it’s glory — a REAL, authentic, self-effacing mom who was laughing about her short-comings and wondering WHY more moms don’t just come right out and admit how HARD motherhood is (and don’t even get her STARTED on the marriage thing).
She admitted all kinds of fantastic things — how she hates laundry so much that she’s downgraded her car so that she could hire a cleaning lady. How she’s massively in love with her eldest child at the moment but pretty much can’t stand her middle one, who constantly whines and picks her nose. How she can’t stand most of the moms at school because the fake banter about how GREAT everything is drives her seriously mad, forcing her to hide out wearing a black hoodie during drop offs and pick ups. And how, when she drops the kids off at school, she high tails it back home, closes all the shades and watches at least ONE episode of Real Housewives all by herself, in the dark, sipping her coffee, slowly.
I fell in mommy love, hard.
But why is it so tough for most moms to just let go of all the expectations of being perfect, especially to each other? The more we show our true selves, the more we can bond together, and create a waaay better environment to share thoughts, strategies and dirty little secrets. And realize that we’re really kind of all the same, just in different, imperfect ways.