Parenting: We’re Embracing Perfect Imperfection!

You’d be forgiven at times for thinking that some parents, particularly bloggers, live in a world of perfect parenting. Scrolling through Facebook or in particular Instagram you can see perfectly dressed children doing perfectly perfect things in their perfectly perfect world. Well, sorry to disillusion you but that ain’t us. If you follow our  Instagram Stories or indeed just the pictures, you will see on a regular basis my old mug appearing make-up less and recently even with a few tears. I have always been honest and brutal with it, right from the start of my blog and I am not about to change. Yes, my photos do generally have a theme and tend to flow and I do pick them with thought, but to be honest, if I like a photo and there is a bit of blurring in the corner, then I am still going to use it. There are no perfect white backgrounds or marble slabs here I am afraid and we’re going one step further to embrace our imperfect perfection of life…

More and more now we are seeing varying pictures, once again across our beloved social media, from parents marking every step of their precious little one’s lives – from the first time they roll over to the first time they sleep through the night. Before Christmas, I told you about some wonderful alternative milestone cards from This Mama Does with perfect milestone cards for mums – references to drinking gin and getting very little sleep among them. However, now there are some brilliant alternative milestone cards coming out to celebrate the “not so perfect” moments that happen with our bubbas and Ace, a leading stain remover brand, sent us there’s to have a play with!

Now, I will remember a lot of things about my little one growing up, but one that sticks out in my mind, happened not just once but twice to both my mum and I. On the odd occasion, Alyssa has shared a bath with me or had a quick dunk with her Nonna and it’s been very sweet and lovely. Until that is we have heard the sudden grunt and see the bright red face to accompany it and there it is… the floater heading straight for us because yes, she has pooped in the bath! There are some absolutely brilliant ones, ranging from the most monumental tantrum, to celebrating yet another night of being awoken because our little darlings just will not sleep through the night!

You’re probably thinking – well why would we want to celebrate these things?! Well, I suppose we aren’t celebrating, we are simply remembering. Parenting is bloody hard work and sometimes I think you need to laugh, otherwise we’d just end up crying wouldn’t we?! I can think of a few others I’d add too:

• The first (but not the last time) I heard the word “No!”
• Today, once again, I wouldn’t eat the meal lovingly cooked by my parent – I prefer crap!
• Due to my destruction capabilities… you can no longer see the floor – win!

Yes, once morning that was my living room and as she had no room left, she chose to get into the toy box to play! What I am saying is what I said before – parenting is hard! Sometimes so hard that we need to have a little cry, a cup of tea, a bucket of wine (joking…kind of!!) or a laugh in order to relieve some of the stress. I adore my daughter, but she is HARDWORK! Do you have a set of milestone cards? Are yours normal or alternative? If you could create your own set, what would your top three be?! If you don’t have any you should definitely head out and grab some for sure – celebrate the perfect and the not so perfect because it is each and every moment we should celebrate whether they make us smile or want to pull our hair out. It’s what parenting is all about!

This was a collaborative post – all thoughts and opinions are my own