• Smile it’s Monday!
• Don’t hate Monday, make Monday hate you!
• Monday is a state of mind!
• Mondays are for fresh starts!
• When life gives you Monday, dip it in glitter and sparkle all day!

WHAT? Why? That’s WAY too much pressure for a Monday. Don’t you ever just want to start out Monday on your own terms? Maybe with a simple cup of coffee and peace and quiet? 🤫

The pressure we feel as parents to portray the perfect role model, the person who has it all together, all the time, is real. 🥴 We all want to be the parent that believes in these motivational quotes and lives them out. We never want to show our weaknesses, our worries, or our struggles to our kids. We are scared they might mimic the worst and most negative parts of our own personalities. So, what do we do? ⬇️⬇️⬇️

We pretend. We pretend we’re OK when we aren’t, we pretend we have it all together when we don’t. We pretend the MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY QUOTES we post on social media are an accurate depiction of how we’re feeling.

I realized a few years ago that trying to be the PERFECT parent was making me into a PRETEND parent. So, one day as I found myself in the trenches of raising young adults, I stopped pretending and became vulnerable and real. 

When our kids are little, we want to protect them, so it just makes sense to always be strong and act like we have it all together. But as our kids get older and grow into teens and then young adults…I thought to myself, what happens now? Suddenly their little kid problems become big kid problems and if they had a mom who pretended that everything was fine all the time and had the perfect life, how were they ever going to figure anything out on their own? 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ 

It’s not easy to be vulnerable, it’s not easy to break down those walls. I’m not saying to go out and tell your kids your deepest, darkest secrets. But be real. Stop pretending. ✋🛑

Share your struggles and how you got through them, share what you did right and what you did wrong, share some mistakes and how you learned from them, share your heartbreaks and how you remember that feeling. 💔😢

When you share your heart, your kids just might talk more, open up more, tell you more, or ask for your input and guidance more during difficult times. Why? ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Because you’ve not only taught them but showed them that being imperfectly present is the greatest gift they can give. 🎁

✌🏻❤️