Tales From A Twin Mom: A Not-So-Perfect Mother on Mother's Day

Tales From A Twin Mom:
A Not-So-Perfect Mother on Mother’s Day

As Mother’s Day approaches, I can’t help but get a little emotional. Not because I am a mother, or because in an attempt to make me breakfast in bed, the kids trash the kitchen in a way that would make a professional housekeeper cry, but because it has been (and still is) a very strange journey. Strange. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s strange because at one point in time, I thought I had this all figured out. I knew exactly how I was going to raise my children. I had a list of things written down in my crazy little head about what I would never be caught doing. My kids would be well behaved, and they would verbalize everything. No need for tantrums or crazy fits. I would quietly whisper “use your words” in a Mary Poppins tone and they would do just that. I didn’t think that it would be very hard. It was just a matter of persistence and patience. Why some parents out there accepted fits and screams was beyond me! I was going to be the perfect mother. My children would love me all through childhood, and think I was the coolest mother during their adolescence. As young adults, they would come to me for guidance and a hug. It was going to be grand.

Oh, what an awakening I’ve had during the years. I have four children now, and not one has been raised the same way. Some accepted time outs, while others have given me smirks when they’re punished. The preschool/toddler years were a complete blur to me. I’m just lucky I survived, and they are still mentally sound-or so I hope. To my surprise, I was not considered the coolest mother during my eldest’s teenage years. There were no hugs or long conversations that led to sharing my wisdom about life. There was, however, a lot of eye rolling, mumbling under the breath and door slamming. I also remember some “You just don’t get it!” screams, selective hearing and oh yes, how can I forget the fact that I had raised a genius? Yep, he knew everything about everything. What more could I have asked for?

Here are the top 4 things that didn’t quite turn out the way I pictured it:

TV Time Kids!

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If you're reading this and judging me, then you either don't have children, or have written a book about parenting that has made billions. Don't judge me. I needed breaks. I wanted to get on the internet for at least 15 minutes to see what was on the news, or what shoes a famous celebrity wore to the Emmys. I could only achieve this if I put on an annoying children's musical; and that is exactly what I did. Yes, of course there were other options; but when I gave them a coloring book and walked away, they would fight about what picture they wanted to color, or what crayon was missing from the pack. Ignore them for 5 minutes, and they would turn into aliens by shoving different colored crayons up their noses and tearing the pieces of the coloring pages into teeny tiny, eensy weensy little pieces. Let's face it-they were good kids, but they were also curious and funny ones.