Preschool & Momma's Guilt

My baby boy became a preschooler today. Where does the time go? I'm not ready for him to be a big boy yet.

Because Cavin hadn't ever really been in any type of formal daycare or preschool setting before, and because preschool classes can get way too expensive, we decided to ease into things with a class through our city parks and recreation that goes for an hour an a half, twice a week, for seven weeks.

They're going to be going over letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and all kinds of other fun stuff. I've been looking forward to this class for weeks, because I think that it will be really good for him to start getting used to a classroom setting before he's old enough to start kindergarten next year.

But as I drove him to his class this morning I wasn't feeling excited, I was feeling guilty. And when I tell you the source of that guilt, you might just laugh at me!

You see, the one thing I'd wanted to accomplish over the weekend, the one thing I wanted to make absolutely sure that we did, was to give the kids a bath. Momma confession: My kids get baths about once a week. And sometimes it ends up being a little longer than that.

I feel a little guilty about the frequency of their baths anyway, cause these boys can get pretty dirty in that short time frame. But baths are an exhaustive process in this house, because 99% of the time, Connor hates taking baths, and it takes some convincing, or a lot of convincing, to get him to cooperate. So because of this, I try to get away with doing them as seldom as possible.

But by this weekend, Cavin really needed a bath. And even though I kept reminding myself that it needed to happen, time got away from us, and it just didn't happen. So on our way to preschool this morning, I was feeling guilty that my poor kid was dirty, and hoping he didn't smell.

Momma guilt can be a tough one to deal with. We all wonder if we're doing the right things, if we're doing everything wrong, do we do this too much, do we not do this enough, etc, etc. And then when we drop the ball on something, we assume we're probably the worst mother in the world.

But you know what I was thinking about once we got to his classroom? How big my baby has grown up, how proud I was of him as he walked over to the other kids and started playing, and how hard it was for me to walk out of that room without crying.

I didn't care that he hadn't had a bath. In fact, I'd completely forgotten.
What I did care about was that this was a big moment in the life of my little boy.

We all make mistakes. It's just a fact of life. But will you let the guilt of your mistakes keep you from enjoying the life that is right in front of you? We need to learn to give ourselves a little grace once in a while, so that we can focus on the things that really matter.

Mom or not, married or single, flaws and all, you are perfect exactly the way you are, and even though sometimes you might think you're doing everything wrong, I promise you, you're doing just fine. 

Should I give my kids baths more often? Probably, yeah. Is it the end of the world if I forget to once in a while? No!

I don't know what guilt may be weighing you down today, but I want to challenge you to give yourself enough grace to let go of that guilt, to accept that you're human and that you will make mistakes and that that's okay. We pick ourselves up, and we keep moving forward.

Have an awesome day :-)