This is unedited motherhood.
That’s my little boys’ closet. This weekend I spent an hour in that closet – going through clothes, folding them, cleaning it up. Last night they spent five minutes in that closet – looking for swim trunks and dumping everything out.
Did they do that to irritate me? No.
Did they do that to disrespect me? No.
Did they do that because they don’t care about my work? No.
They just wanted swim trunks. And even though they KNOW to put things back – they are still kids – who make messes.
I could show you that closet when it was perfect, the way I LOVE it. And then you might look in your closets and wonder, “why can’t I keep my kid’s closet like that?” or you might think, “wow she spends too much time keeping that closet clean” or “I wish I was better.”
And that? That would just be perpetuating the fallacy of perfect, clothes hung up straight and nothing on the floor, motherhood.
Because REAL LIFE IS MESSY.
So I’m showing you the closet I discovered this morning. And just to add a bit of salt to my mom wound – I discovered this when I ran up to that closet to get socks for my eight year old because we were late getting to reading camp.
Sure I could have been thankful for the moment. Or the kids in the house. Or the clothes. But to be perfectly honest, dear moms, I was irritated. Frustrated. And just wanted to be like, “what is the point?”
But instead, I grabbed those socks, took a picture, dropped him off at camp, came back and decided to share my real with you. Why? Because if I ONLY share perfection we all live in this sticky place of messy counters and kids that dump clothes out and instead of realizing it is just part of the journey – clean the counters, teach the kids about clothes – we put on ourselves like a pass/fail label of motherhood.
There isn’t a pass/fail. Well, unless you abandon ship and go to Fiji and leave everyone. But, we’re not doing that. I mean, if you’re like me you’re looking for more coffee and trying despite tired and all because we are fighters.
You and I are showing up day after day. Picking up the clothes, folding them, sitting kids down and talking about how when they are looking for something to not leave everything else on the floor, figuring out a better system.
Real life is unpredictable.
Real motherhood is even more unpredictable.
But it is also wonderful. So today when you look at your real life I don’t want you to compare it to anything other than REAL. And that? That’s why I’m sharing this picture.
Because we are stronger when we love each other for their REAL unedited unpredictable beautiful lives.
~Rachel
ps. read You Have No Idea How Hard I Try
