You're Doing Ok, Mom.

Note: This is a post that has been in the making for quite some time. Just when I thought I had my top 25, I changed my mind. I have read blogs where moms have given their reasons for laughing, crying, screaming, etc. I have found that most moms are experiencing the same things I am, it is absolutely normal. (Thank goodness!) I could probably list 100 reasons, but I will spare you. 

I have complied a short list of ways to know you are elbows deep into mommyhood. Some make me laugh, some make me cry. There are days where I am challenged and want to quit. I mess up, I get frustrated, I say things I don't mean, but, I think I'm doing ok. 

Here they are:

Top 25 Ways to know you are a Mommy

1.           You laugh and cry for no reason at all. 

2.            If you don’t change the toilet paper roll, it doesn’t get changed.

3.            You wash the same load of laundry at least twice before remembering to empty it.

4.            You consider Goldfish crackers a food group. And you cry with happiness when your child eats something besides Goldfish.

5.            You can sing/recite every Elmo video there is.

6.            You can’t remember the last time you ate a meal while it was still hot.

7.            You are a sobbing mess every time you watch this commercial because you feel as if they are talking to you.

8.            You wish there was a “drive through” everything.

9.            You can do 100 things at one time (with a fussy kid on your hip).

10.        You can change a diaper in the pitch dark with one arm behind your back.

11.        You have an entire Pinterest Board full of crafts that you will never actually get around to doing.

12.        You save lives on a daily basis.

13.        You take it personally when strangers don’t wave back to your baby.

14.        Some days you just want to quit.

15.        You haven’t slept in what feels like a decade.

16.        There is often an extra tiny person sleeping in your bed.

17.        Coffee is your lifeline. Having 5 cups before 10am is a typical morning. 

18.        You will need to take out a loan to process and print all of the pictures you take.

19.        You would rather have someone help you with the laundry than anything else in the world.

20.        Leaving the house without a pacifier results in an immediate trip back home.

21.        You have several storybooks memorized. And most make you cry. Especially this one.

22.        Your idea of luxury is when someone else unloads the dishwasher and takes out the trash.

23.        You’ve Googled the phrase, “is my child’s poop normal?” more that once.

24.        You celebrate when you go an entire month without a trip to the doctor.

25.        You pray. About everything. Because you’ve learned you can’t control anything.

I have to remember, I am not being graded on motherhood. 

Somedays, survival is considered a success. 

You're doing ok, mom.