When my oldest was just a few months old, I remember my brother telling me, “Wow, I am surprised how laid back of a Mom you are, for how not-laid-back you are as a person.” I wasn’t exactly flatted by that statement at all. But truthfully, people use a lot of words to describe me, but “chill” is rarely one of them. I’m a control freak. I love living in a clean, organized house. I take pride in arriving places on time, usually early. But in my four and a half years as a mother, I’ve learned that I need to let go of some things because when living with tiny humans, it’s almost impossible to have control 100% of the time.
It’s been a challenging process as an adult to learn how to bend a little bit more. Adding flexibility into our days can decrease my stress and keep me from going completely crazy. There are certain things that I feel it’s important to still be the driving force behind, but there have been little things in our life that I’ve tried to let go of, and it makes life a little easier for us all.
Here are 4 things that I’ve decided to let go of:
- Stressing over what my kids wear. Did my son wear his two-sizes-too-big shirt backward today? Yup. Did it really, truly affect me? Nope. Did it have any significant impact on our day? Nope. I’ve learned to let it go. It’s not worth the battle. He’s proud when he gets dressed by himself, and it saves me some time in the morning.
- Dinner table spills until after dinner. I used to stress about trying to clean up each dribble and drop, but I know I am going to have to give each kiddo a deep clean after the meal anyway, so I just let them enjoy their meal and clean them up after.
- Trying to do it all. I still get really embarrassed to arrive anywhere late. So I’ve made an effort to be realistic about our schedule. Add in some grace for outfit changes, emergency potty breaks as your running out the door, or anything else. I use to over plan our days, and now I have found that when we try to do less, we can do it all a little bit better.
- My calendar becoming my reality. This point isn’t to say that I don’t see value in planning out your week, or practicing good time management because 100% love all of those things. But, I have learned that I often need to rearrange my days on the fly. When daycare calls home about a sick kiddo, your entire week becomes a new shuffle of what meetings and commitments fit where.
Some days, I do a great job at having that moment where I ask myself what really matters. And other days, I feel like a crazy lady trying to control more than I probably should be stressing over. But hey, it’s a learning process and I’m getting better each day! What are some things that you’ve learned to let go of as a parent?
