Things I used to say before becoming a mom....

Me? Judgmental? Never! 

Me, thinking I could do things better than others when I had kids of my own? Yes.

I realize how awful that sounds, but let's be honest.....you ALL thought/think the same thing. And then you had your kids. And maybe, just maybe, you are Super Mom and you followed through with all your prior thoughts and decisions about raising your kids. But, alas, I am not. And it became glaringly clear today when Jonathan peed in the bushes at the park (again.) Here are a few of the things I said I would/wouldn't do when I had kids.

1. "I will not let my kids eat hot dogs, juice, chicken nuggets or any other processed meal until it is absolutely necessary." Turns out, "absolutely necessary" comes a whole lot faster than I anticipated.

2. "I will always wipe down any surface before my kids touch it." This was thrown out the window the day both boys peed their pants at the playground in the mall. I figure, I could wipe down that table, but my little wipe isn't going to get rid of the hidden gems the kids before them left behind. I just pray it wasn't pee.

3. "I will not let my kids watch more than 15 minutes of TV a day." Oh, poor, naive, little Katy. 

4. "My kids will have a protein  veggie, and fruit at every meal!" I am lucky if they eat ANYTHING at a meal. Now a days, I bribe Jonathan to eat his chicken nuggets by offering him chips. #Momoftheyear.

5. "I will never have THAT kid in the store....if mine starts screaming, I will put a stop to it right away!" Sure, I do this. If by "put a stop to it right away," I meant "pick up anything edible with sugar in it and stuff it in their mouth so they stop being obnoxious."

6. "As soon as my kids start acting up, they will get a spanking and time out!" If I did this every time my boys acted up......whew. My hand would hurt. As it is, I am pretty bad about saying "oh, he didn't really mean to throw that ball at Matthew's head and make him cry all because Matthew took the ball away from him 3 days ago and he is still mad. It was an accident......I can't spank him for an accident."

7. "If my kid ever makes too much noise in a restaurant  I will immediately take him outside and give him a talking to!" Screaming kid? What screaming kid? All I hear is my little angel talking quietly to his bowl of chips and queso. No issues here.....

Those are just the few I can think of now. In all seriousness, I think it is hilarious how we all think we will be these amazing, perfect parents. We will do everything right, nothing too controversial, follow the rules that all the books spell out for us...and then, we have our kids and realize that those things just don't work sometimes. At the end of the day, we all love our babies. We want the very best for them and most of the time, we don't care how we achieve that. I wish that all of us would look around, pat each other on the back and say "good work Mama!" Even if you don't agree with everything that Mama is doing....they are doing their best. Give them some mad props for it.

So, shout out to all my Mama friends! You guys are doing an amazing job! Keep proudly sneaking your kiddos those juice boxes and chicken nuggets....no judgement here!! :)