Born to Try

Three little letters. T.R.Y. 

We say it about food - just try a little bite.
We say it about projects - I'll try to get it done by then.
When the kids "can't" do something - JUST TRY!

Try new things. Try more things. Try harder!

But what if we stopped trying.... Stop putting so much effort into things that don't really matter. That don't  make us happy... 

Stop trying to be the perfect parent - they don't exist! You don't need to have a picture perfect house, amazing home made food, clean children... half the time my kids aren't even dressed! They've been to the shops in their PJs, I mean at least it's clothes right? So what if they eat vegemite sandwiches for every meal for a week (or a month)... it's food that they'll eat, go with it! Stop putting so much pressure on yourself to do things you think you're meant to... whether that's because society has this expectation you want to live up to, or you think people are judging you, or you just want to be "perfect"... STOP! Your kids don't care... Mine sure don't! They don't give a shit if I spend 3 hours picking up toys, vacuuming and mopping... they're just gonna drop yoghurt on the floor in 5 mins anyway.... What they care about is if mummy is happy! I have well and truly overused the phrase "mummy is very grumpy".... so much that Mr 5 used to say "you happy mummy?" 

I know I've been a pretty crappy housewife lately (ok, for like 10 years, whatever).... But when I tuck those babies in bed and get told "I love you mummy, you're the best mummy ever" well that's what really matters. Even when all I've done all day is nag, and yell and "command" (Mr 5 again), yet they still tell me I'm amazing, all that other stuff doesn't matter. 

And doing it on my own is hard. Like really freaking depressingly, I want to bulldoze my house cos it looks like shit hard.... But even when I was married my house was never spotless... it was actually more like having a third child leaving crap lying around. But when I go all Marie Kondo on this place.... But at least I know that when it looks good, it's all on me. When it looks shit, it's on me too, but we wont talk about that! 

Every thing good I have right now, is on me. When people say nice things about my kids (Which surprisingly they do!) that's because of me! When they say how good I'm looking, that's because of me! The amazing people I have in my life are there because of who I am. They can see the past the annoying bits and love me anyway. 

I'm not really sure how much sense any of this had made to anyone else... it's just a jumble of what's going on in the old grey matter at the moment... what I really want to say though is, give yourself a break! And give yourself credit for everything you do! You may not get it right every time, but that's how we learn.