A little backstory
My toddler was throwing a HUGE fit (picture tears, screaming, melted on the floor, complete meltdown mode). All over wanting to wear pink pants to bed (which were in the wash). I go in there and kill it, literally thinking to myself; I should have filmed this for the blog; it was textbook parenting advice. Right as I go to leave on my mom high horse, she blows up again, and no matter what I say, she doesn’t calm down. I finally said f*ck it and just walked out of the room, letting my toddler scream.
I realized at that moment that people (especially those giving behavior advice) never talk about how it doesn’t always go perfectly. Sometimes you can DO everything perfectly, and it doesn’t GO perfectly, and it’s time to normalize that! Social media is such a great place for sharing advice and stories but is also extremely misleading. I’m not discrediting my own or others’ parenting advice here. To brag on myself, I am confident in my behavior advice, but does my kid throw fits? Of course she does, she’s a toddler!
What happens when a parent follows parenting advice, and it doesn’t work? They blame themselves! So I’m here to spread the word…. sometimes sh*t just doesn’t work.
Don’t let something not working once scare you.
When trying new things with our toddlers, it’s really easy to try it once and throw it to the curb or have it blow up once and say it isn’t working anymore. Behavior interventions take time and learning for both you and your toddler. So don’t let something not going as planned one time scare you from continuing it. The truth is that we are all human, and things just don’t go as planned from time to time.
Fun fact, in Michael Jordan’s 15 seasons in the NBA he missed 1,445 free throws. Even though he perfected everything from his foot placement to the flick of his wrist, sometimes sh*t just didn’t work. Does that mean he was a failure? Absolutely not, and neither are you.
So here’s my message to you, mama, it’s not you. That perfect mom you see on social media has bumps in the road too. Keep your head up; just because you missed a few free throws doesn’t mean you’re not an NBA-level mama.
