To give you a good laugh this Monday and to beat the Monday blues, my friend, Katie Clark (published author and a dear friend), and I thought we would share our hot mess mama stories with you. I’m a hot mess mama, but I’m not alone! Katie is too, and we own every minute of it. Well, I own it once I call her, because this recovering perfectionist can get really bogged down by the perfect images I see on Pinterest, social media feeds, commercials, and catalogs. More on that at the end of the post. Here are a few of our hot mess mama stories to make your Monday:
I once showed up to my son’s friend’s birthday party two weeks early… so it wasn’t really his friend’s birthday party at all. I only realized my mistake after my son sat down in the karate circle, looked around the group, and then turned around and mouthed to me from the other side of the glass, “These aren’t my friends!” I then slowly looked around at the other parents and realized none of them looked familiar. HAHAHA! I confirmed with the party head that I had arrived two weeks early, at which point I motioned to my son to come see me. We slinked out of there as quietly as possible. Do you think anyone noticed? Hahaha! When we got in the car my son said to me, “Mommy, I love you a lot, but right now I feel like hitting you.” I replied back, “Yeah buddy, that’s what embarrassment feels like. I’m so sorry. Unfortunately, that’s not the last time mommy’s going to embarrass you.” After all, it’s a right of passage, right? Roll with it! #hotmessmama
One time Katie forced her daughter to stay at the table until she finished her peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Her daughter was being whiny (for a reason unknown to her mother) because the sandwich was “hot”. She said,”Mom, it’s burning my tongue”. WHAAT? Katie thought. That’s a load of garbage. Eat the darn sandwich. We’re not wasting food. “But Mom,” her 6 year old complained, “It really is HOT.” “Alright,” Katie said, “if I take a bite, you can take a bite.” So… Katie took a bite and her teeth sunk into Knotts jalapeño jelly. She immediately felt terrible, but owned the situation. Roll with it! #hotmessmama
Katie once sent to her daughter to school for a book character parade as Eliza Jane from her children’s book, River Royals. Her daughter was all decked out- mascara as freckles on her cheeks, two braids down the side of her head– the whole shebang. After she dropped her daughter off, she was talking to some other mom’s in the front of the school asking them what they sent their child to school as for the book character parade. Well, one mom kindly replied, “Oh, the book character parade? That’s next Friday.” Katie didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or throw up. Well, she did none of the above and instead sprinted to her daughter’s classroom. When she looked through the window in the door, she saw that her daughter had sunk down in her chair and was wiping the mascara freckles off with her finger. Katie felt absolutely horrible! The sweet teacher let her come outside, and Katie helped her regroup and get rid of her costume. Roll with it! #hotmessmama
I have a penchant for forgetting the most necessary items needed on family vacations. There was the time I forgot earplugs for my son who just had tubes put in his ears and couldn’t get them wet, and the time I forgot swim trunks on the beach vacation. “I promise boys, we can go swimming first thing tomorrow morning!” Not so fast! Oh, and the trip I forgot to pack the boy’s underwear and my underwear. I promise I make a list. I really do. I just don’t look at the list. HAHAHA! Roll with it! #hotmessmama
I have to be honest, I have a tendency to get really down on myself when I goof-up as a mom because of my own childhood stuff. I find myself striving to be this perfect mom that doesn’t exist. That’s when I call my friend Katie, who reminds me that life’s everyday imperfections with our children teach them to “roll with it”! She reminds me convenience doesn’t build character. In fact, these funny stories are the memory makers! Our children are going to have similar goof-ups, and it’s my hope that they look back on how we as parents handled these situations and realize that we “rolled with it”.
What are your #hotmessmama stories? Please share! We all want a good laugh! Maybe we can start a series!
Picture by Traci Ling
My daughter is a competitive swimmer and has to be at swim practice very early on school days. I was so proud of myself one early Friday. At 4:45 am, the coffee was made, school lunches packed, car was loaded with swim gear, school uniform and school bags. Woo hoo — I was going to get my daughter to practice on time! I get ready to back the car out of the garage only to realize I had forgotten the most important element of the morning — my swimmer. To top it off, it was her birthday. How did I forget her??? We made it to practice — late of course!
Hahahaha! That’s the best! I can just see you in the car early and proud… so funny! Thanks for sharing!
My list is literally endless. I have 4 kids and spent 6 months planning a ski vacation to Canada to coincide with a family Bar Mitzvah that was happening later in the week in Vancouver. We were set to travel on Monday MLK Jr day. The day before travel, on a Sunday, I realized that my passport and 1 child’s passport had expired. Ahhhhh! No government offices open until Tuesday!!!!!! I had checked the passports when I bought the tickets and they said 2016- I had forgotten that we were going to be traveling in January 2017!!! My husband ended up taking 2 kids skiing and I had to show up at the passport office downtown at 6am (without an appointment) and beg and cry until they had mercy on me. Got the passports that afternoon and flew out Wednesday. Missed the skiing but made it to the bar mitzvah. I spent a lot of time being disappointed in myself and I still can’t quite laugh about it (hopefully at some point😜). But these things happen to all of us and we have to forgive ourselves or we’ll never make it through! Great idea for a post!
Thanks for sharing! I’m right there with you.
Hot messes unite!!! I may need to change my middle name. How sweet is God to give me you both as two of my dearest friends?!
Sent my kids to school in free dress clothes just last week… just one week early.
Brought a birthday present for another friend (not the birthday girl) once.
Botched the tooth fairy role… which led to questions and confessions regarding other heroes!
Forgot a friend’s child at school…
What about the time at the restaurant (with our kids in tow, C!) where I dropped the name of the owner of a very busy & high profile restaurant in California (and asked if he was there!) when we were without a reservation & up a creek… only to see him sitting feet away. Cool mom. 😎
I mean. Make it stop. The good news is that my kids have come to accept it and accept ME just as I am. So thankful for GRACE.
😘
All of this is why I love you so much!!! And reading these stories made me laugh! No wonder we have so much fun together!
Once I was going through the drive through car wash and my rear-facing baby in the back seat began to wail. I could not figure out what the problem was and figured he just didn’t like the noise or the darkness. I tried to shush and soothe him but he kept wailing. Once we got out to the vacuum section I got out of the car to check on him. Turns out his window had been cracked open the whole time and he was soaking wet on that side! #momfail
I just laughed out loud! Like out loud very loudly! Thank you for the laugh!
Dev- this is why I love you!!! These are awesome! Vulnerability is just the best, isn’t it? Xoxo
Hi, I’m Laura and I’m a #hotmessmama. I’m a landscape designer and this time of year is basically well…let’s just say really busy. As such, I have forgotten to send my preschool son with his lunch THREE times this spring. His “super understanding” preschool teacher always sends me a text to let me know…AT THE END OF LUNCH, even though I live so close I could be there in 5 mins with a PBJ. Thanks…Thanks a lot. She must not be at #hotmessmama. How nice for her.