Humor and Encouragement for Those Really Hard Mommy Days

Today’s post is a journal entry I wrote about ten years ago at the end of a day when I wanted to play hide-n-seek with my kids and NEVER be found. The struggle is real, my friend! Enjoy the laugh and know that you’re not alone! What you do day in and day out is a mighty and holy calling.

Today would’ve been one of those perfect days if everything about it hadn’t been so completely imperfect.

It was a day when the kids fought more than they got along. A day when a defiant “NO” was the standard answer every time I asked my 3-year-old son to do something. It was a day of my 15-month-old daughter throwing herself to the floor in a fit more often than her typical day. Along with all of this, both kids are sick, laundry is piled in towers that resemble a small city, and the underwear my son needs to cover his naked self is buried somewhere in the rubble. The carpets have remnants of crackers eaten last week. The bathrooms are growing mold; and I think I heard the furniture cough from being so dusty. Oh, and we’re out of toilet paper and fruit. And there is a growing bee’s nest out back right where the kids play. So this means we are off to Wal Mart on this fine, FINE day to get toilet paper, fruit, bee killer and a few other necessities.

All is well until my daughter has to sit in a cart for more than five minutes.

Before I know it, she’s standing up on the seat facing backwards. Aside from all the disapproving looks from other shoppers, my daughter’s defiance to sit safely in the cart actually worked well. You see, she was also making this obnoxiously loud noise that worked like a horn that blared, “WE’RE COMING THROUGH, SO GET OUT OF OUR WAY!”

Shoppers parted like the Red Sea.

This made things go a little faster, but only for a moment. The waves crashed down hard on me when she decided she wanted out of the cart to walk…no…run…no…pull every item off the bottom shelves. So into my arms she goes in my feeble attempt to control my little princess. Ha! She laughs at my parental authority, arching her back over my arm so that every vertebrate in her spine cracks. She is now hanging upside down over my arm. Then comes the wailing, red face and more disappointed looks from old women in the store who apparently forget what it’s like to shop with two little ones. I was never so tempted to just leave my cart and make a run for the door. But I stayed the course with my screaming princess in one hand and the mega-sized, “kid-friendly” cart in the other. After paying for the groceries and grabbing a free lollipop for my son on the way out, we finally made it to the car.

Dinner was next on my day’s list of duties.

It actually went pretty well, except that my children had sucked any desire to eat from my system. After my family was done, I put my very tired little girl to bed and my husband took my son outside. I came downstairs to clean up the kitchen only to break down in tears.

“What a day, Lord!” I cried. “I love my kids more than life itself, but today I wanted to strangle them. Does that make me a terrible mommy? I feel like today, Mommy is a punching bag. Why do kids have to be so rotten and selfish sometimes? Can’t they give just a little back to show me they love me too?!”

Just then, my prayer was interrupted by my son’s voice calling me from outside. I was tempted to pretend I didn’t hear him, turn off all the lights and stay very still. But I didn’t, and instead walked to the door to see what he needed. “I can’t find any flowers,” he said sadly looking at the ground. “I wanted to pick you some flowers, Mommy, but I can’t find any.” He kept looking as he talked, “Oh, there’s one!”

He ran across the yard and plucked the little weed from the ground. Running back, he held it up for me. “This is for you, Mommy. I love you.” I fought back tears as I took the flower from his tiny hand. I knew in that moment that not only was my son expressing his love for me, but God was too. He saw every hard thing that happened in my day, and even though I hadn’t noticed his presence, he was with me and was strengthening. This mom job is no easy task. If you’re having “one of those days” today, be encouraged that God is with you and is strengthening you for the good work of motherhood. The Bible gives us hope saying, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). 

Anna Frye is a speaker, author, television host and founder of the Chosen and Crowned tribe. She invites moms and wives to celebrate imperfect progress fueled by the grace of a perfect God. She helps women bravely talk about the messy places of life, instead of hiding shamefully under them. She believes that lasting beauty comes when women courageously surrender their ashes to God and allow him to do something mind-blowingly amazing with them. If this resonates with you, then you belong with the Chosen and Crowned tribe. Connect at www.ChosenAndCrowned.com/blog