This week’s feature on my series Parenting Win vs Parenting Fail comes from Simone. Simone blogs over at An Ordinary Girl. She has successfully blended her passion for beauty and parenting and combined the two on her blog. She is also one of the friendliest and most supportive bloggers I have come across so I’m super excited to share her stories in this series. 

If this is your first time reading one of these, it’s a series I started a few months ago with the purpose of featuring a mom (or dad) who is willing to share a Parenting Win story and a Parenting Fail story. The “Parenting Win” stories are where mom’s get to brag about their greatest achievement as a mom. These tend to be really small achievements to everyone else, but to the mom involved they are huge! The “Parenting Fail” stories are stories where you felt like you really dropped the ball (mine was a doozy!). The point is to make other parents realise that there is no such thing as a #PerfectParent. We all make mistakes but we learn from them and move on.

Without further adieu, it’s over to Simone …

I do love reading this series on the blog because I think it helps us moms realise that some days we are all in the same boat. We all forget to pack in their lunchbox at least once. We’ve all had scary situations where our kids have been in some sort of danger. We all love our kids, keep them alive…and just do the best that we can. So I am sure everyday we experience multiple #parentingwins and multiple #parentingfails.

 #ParentingFail

Let me start by saying that this mom is really really tired. I am not one of those earth moms that have endless amounts of patience and love. Some days I genuinely wonder if I am cut out for this parenting stuff. Some days I also wonder what possessed me to do this THREE times. Okay, so every morning I get out of bed basically like a Berkin (from the movie Trolls). I am cranky and tired and usually LATE. One morning this week I offered middle kid, Joshua (5), about 3 different types of cereals. He was wanting none of it, and we needed to get done. I mumbled to hubby that ‘he’s just being full of shit, so let him starve.’
 
I was sitting and having my coffee (3 minutes of peace I try to grant myself before I rush out of the door to work) and I see Joshua is totally giving me the evil eye. I ask every so sweetly: What’s wrong my boy? He looks at me, dead pan face and says: Well, you called me a piece of shit.
 
*insert saucer wide eyes face* I thought he was out of earshot. I literally had nothing to say in my defence. Last night I did try to sell that I had actually said: Mummy wanted to buy you a  piece of a ship. But, um…needless to say, he ain’t buying what I’m selling. #ParentingFail
 
17553494_10154816711472107_3394129113529260194_n

#ParentingWin

Okay, so this may be a bit of a dark, what I consider it to be a #ParentingWin. In December last year, we went out to celebrate my middle son’s 5th birthday. We opted to leave the toddler at home with the nanny, deeming it safer than the beach/pool spot we were taking the older kids too. There’s a long post about this on my blog, but the long and the short of it is that somehow, a voice inside me told me that I needed to get home. It was a voice and an anxiousness that I chose to listen to. I wasn’t frantic, I was very calm, but firm that we needed to get home. It’s about a 20km trip between the pool and my house.
 
You can imagine there could have been pit stops, red robots, etc. My mom wanted to be dropped somewhere….my mom voice said, get home. No stopping. Anywhere. When we pulled up at home, we found my then, 16 month old toddler, standing waist high in water on the 2nd step of the slimy green pool. Had we been even 10 or 30 seconds later, that toddler would not have been here to celebrate his 2nd birthday with us last week.
 
I think that I am very hard on myself. I’m not the natural Mary Poppins type of mom. I’m not patient, I’m not the DIY mom, I’m the mom who always seems to forget about school events and truth be told, I probably don’t spend nearly enough time with them. BUT when it comes to my kids, I have a sense and a keen eye for when something isn’t right.
 
I believe the grace of God and the connection I have with Adam called me home that day. I think that will be my biggest #ParentingWin of my life, even though I put it down to a #ParentingFail in the first place for leaving him at home. It’s actually only through this exercise that I pat myself on the back, for being the one that knew he needed me. I’ve been so angry with myself for the longest time, so this was therapy in a way for me. Not at all what I thought I’d be sending you.
16998986_10154737852337107_6524354315562842924_n

 
I have really been battling to think of anything more lighthearted to submit. I think I just never think I’m doing well at anything parenting related, despite the reassurance from my husband that I am a good mom.
11200596_10153123204257107_362495801277493278_n
Thanks so much Simone! Those are great stories. I think we have all made the mistake of thinking they can’t hear us when in actual fact they can, and unfortunately we don’t realise until it’s too late that the words we have said have already been taken to their very fragile hearts. The Parenting Win story is so important. We all need to trust our instincts all the time! Every, single time. No matter what. Even if it turns out to be nothing. Even then.
Please do go and follow Simone on her other social media platforms. She is one of the sweetest, kindest and supportive bloggers I’ve come across.
Twitter – @GA_Simone
Please get in touch if you would like to be featured in the coming weeks. I’m really loving sharing everyone’s stories.
Here are the links to a few of the other recent features in the series.
Monday Stumble Linky