Popcorn for Breakfast

As a mom, I feel guilty. All the time. About so many things.

I feel guilty when I see the kids’ parental control email that says that the previous day my son spent 2 hours on Roblox, 1 hour on TikTok and another hour or so on Fortnite. That was a school day, and somehow under the same roof I missed all of it.

I feel guilty when I order Deliveroo for the second night in a row. But it’s gluten and dairy free pizza! That should negate the guilt, right?

I feel guilty when my daughter has an online school break and she wants to do something fun with me, but I say ‘no’ because it is during the exact hour I have free and have my own ideas of what to accomplish. I feel even guiltier when she tells me that I always have excuses.

And the list goes on. Each day I start with a new outlook, a new plan and a new determination to really be there for my kids. The problem, though, is that I am always there for my kids. We are always together. Every minute of every day, unless I get out to the store to buy food. For my kids. I am certainly not complaining, as I truly do feel so fortunate to be their mom. I have chosen my career path to be able to be home and there for them. None of us ever thought, though, that it would be this much!!

If you had chosen to home school your kids before all of this, I firmly declare you a superhero.

We posted an article this past week on our social media that addresses the guilt that we are all experiencing, and the moral of the piece was that we need to adjust our expectations. The conclusion I came to was that we could either:

1) Accept that we have all become crap parents, or

2) Accept that we are actually good, well-intended parents, doing the best that we can during an unprecedented time, thrown into a situation that no parent really has the human capacity to perfectly manage.

Why don’t we all embrace option 2, remind our kids we love them and let them eat popcorn for breakfast.