It’s CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!
I don’t know about you, but this is my favorite time of year! I love all the lights and decorations. I love the smell of cinnamon pine cones at the store!
I even LOVE the Christmas music playing on an endless loop. Yes, I am one of those people.
However, this is also the time of year where I tend to drive myself a little bit crazy and drive myself into the ground. I also used to deal with an overabundance of guilt because of my need to compare myself to other moms or families.
I am not fully sure why we as moms often feel that we need to absolutely kill ourselves to give our kids the BEST Christmas EVER! We will work ourselves to the bone, scrimp and save all year long, clean, bake and decorate until we are complete madwomen – just to feel like we are doing a good job.
At least I used to do this. Maybe you are a lot more zen than I was about the holidays but I for some reason was always trying to live up to some weird ideal I had set in my mind. Like I HAD to deliver a perfect Christmas for my kids in order to make up for something.
You know, the perfect Christmas, where the kids are happy with everything that I got them, I have scored major mom points and feel like I am the best mom ever!!! Maybe you feel this way too.
But I was recently reminded of a couple of things this weekend during a Saturday Night Live skit about the “Best Christmas Ever” that I want to share with you.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. There is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ Christmas. Not everything will go the way we want it to. Kids will almost always drive you crazy because they are riding a present/candy high that they will not come down from for hours.
2. You may get into it with family members and have a raging scream fest about Trump, the “War on Christmas” or whatever new political landmine may be out there lurking.
3. You may get into it with you KIDS! Because at hour 3 of that sugar/toy high the toy you thought was SO CUTE in the store has gotten on your LAST nerve and you are secretly wondering if you can fit it down the garbage disposal.
4. Dinner might get burned, toys may break, any number of things may not go the exact way you want them to.
5. With ALL of those possibilities and more your kids already think you are awesome and your family still loves you. You don’t have to live up to some ideal that YOU have made up in your head because NOBODY ELSE is expecting you to live up to it. (At least they shouldn’t be)
Honestly, if you are raising your kids right and they are good kids who aren’t expecting the world from you this holiday. They will be happy with whatever you get them. And yeah, they may be a bit disappointed if they didn’t get that ONE toy they were hoping for.
But guess what – they will live. Really, they will.
And YOU are not a bad mom because you couldn’t or wouldn’t get it for them. You don’t need to live up to some image you have in your head. You aren’t required to do the same things your sister is doing for her family. (Or try to out do her – you know who you are out there.)
You most definitely don’t need to live up to what “other moms” are doing for their kids.
Everyone’s situation is different. Everyone’s lives are different. And not everyone can do the same things for their families. Nor should they feel like they have to.
Christmas is about family, and love and giving – it isn’t a contest to win. So this holiday season, don’t drive yourself crazy trying to be something more than what you are… because what you are is enough. I promise you.
