How {NOT} to be the Perfect Mom Giveaway with Jill Savage

What is your most imperfect mom moment?

Have you ever nearly clipped the end of your newborn’s fingertip off while trying to trim her fingernails, drawing blood and causing her to scream in pain?

406378_1_ftcHave you ever told your pre-schooler, while they were riding round and round on a fast-twirling merry-go-round, to “Jump!” into your arms so you could catch her {but failed to anticipate that when she jumped at the command,the momentum of the twirling would actually send her soaring waaaaay past you and onto a cement patio where she would get two terribly scraped knees and a a sprain left arm?}

Or how about this one, ever bake homemade bread from scratch for company, only to leave out the yeast and then wonder why it never rose in the pan and looked like a big sunken mess?

Has a vice-principal ever had your number on speed dial due to the antics and pranks of your middle-schooler?

Did you yell at your child for something that was an accident because you were actually upset about an issue with a friend but took your anger out on them instead?

Have you neglected praying for your child because you were just plain too busy?

Have you looked around at a mom who has seemingly perfectly obedient children and thought to yourself, “As a mother, I’m a failure. And my kids aren’t far behind.”

Well….. I can answer a hearty “Yes” to ALL of the above happening at our house. The truth is, there are no perfect moms. Just women who play them on TV {and  some who play them in real life!}.

2013posterncMy perfectly imperfect friend Jill Savage, founder of Hearts at Home, has written a wonderful book for all of us in the “Messed Up Moms Club” and she is giving away two copies of it here today.

And if you can get your sweet self to Rochester, MN the weekend of November 8-9, you can hang out with Jill and me, along with our two imperfect friends, comedian Anita Rentfroe and author and actress Candace Cameron Bure.

The Hearts at Home North Central Conference registration closes October 23 so make plans now to join us!!! Click here for more info.

And if you’d like to be entered to win one of Jill’s books, leave us an “imperfect mommy moment” that YOU have experienced. Winners announced Monday.

92 Comments

  1. So many stories to tell, but just 2 days ago it was finally windy enough to go and fly our kites. My 7 yr old DS and I headed to an open field by our house. We are having a great time with our kites flying perfectly until he looses hold of his. He’s so upset he goes chasing through a field to get it, almost steps on a snake in the process. He catches his kite only to realize he lost his shoes, (ratty sandals he’s had all summer and won’t fit next)., Do I praise him for catching the kit…..no (mom fail).Instead I scold him for losing his shoes.
    UGH I hate Mommy monster.

  2. On one of the first outings with my newborn son I forgot to bring his diaper bag. I had nothing and we were going to my company’s Christmas luncheon.

  3. Several years ago when my firstborn was a toddler I knew his Sunday school teacher was going to be serving cupcakes that morning. He was a little bit shy but certainly polite with his please’s and thank you’s, so I don’t know why I felt the need to extra-mother and say something to him that morning before he went to class. I mentioned to him that there would be cupcakes and to make sure he told his teacher thank you when she gave him a cupcake because if we aren’t thankful we shouldn’t take a treat. It was more so to give a lesson as to why people were always grateful when he was polite…that he was being a blessing to them. Anyway, the teacher asked me when I picked him up if he didn’t like cupcakes and I realized what had happened. He wasn’t as familiar with this new teacher (it was just into the school year) and therefore knew he couldn’t bring himself to talk to her, so he opted for no cupcake. I apologized to both of them and explained my mistake and he and she enjoyed a cupcake together and the start of a great friendship. I felt just awful, like things would have been better had I just kept my mouth shut and let well enough alone. Who care if he’s not always saying thank-you at three? His smile would have conveyed that, and I guarantee he would not have been the only one not saying an audible thank you.
    And thanks to Jill and Karen for the encouragement to keep pressing on. Also for the opportunity to win a copy of Jill’s book.

  4. There was the time when I was far enough behind on keeping up with my family’s laundry (we’d been ill), that I resorted to dressing my infant girl in her brother’s hand-me-down clothing. I had to do that with her older sister, too. Thankfully, I haven’t had to dress my boys in their sisters’ clothes.

  5. My imperfect mom moment happened this morning. My four year old and I went to the grocery store this moring and I let her get an apple. She asked if she could eat it when we get in the car and I quickly said “I think you should wait until after we go to the next store.” Which is I. The same strip mall and we drove because it was misting. We got to the store. I opened the door and grabbed the apple which slipped slipped from my hand and started rolling across the parking lot. She had bit it and it slipped from my hand. I grabbed the appke put it back in the cup holder on the door and came unglued. I said “you ate the apple, I thought I said to wait to eat the apple. Because you ate it it fell. Ugh! ” We walked the three parking spots toward the door and I had to stop, pick her up and tell her I was sorry. Mommy loves you and sorry for yelling.

  6. Many ideas come to mind, yet the top one at the moment…when my oldest was in kindergarten, almost 15 years ago, now….in exhaustion, trying to do all things…perfect…decided to make a batch of sugar cookie dough, and some cute Santa cupcakes, via the great, Family Fun Magazine! Functioning on little sleep, working rapidly to bring these special cupcakes for the class’ Christmas party, I remember struggling with frosting these cupcakes, just so.
    They were supposed to be adorable Santa replicas. Imagine, the horror I experienced, when later on, after the party…as I am most grumpy within the house, trying to get my two children to nap at that time, as I was working a night shift a few hours later…(And am SURE my grumpiness and imperfectness, was heard, by the cupcake droppeee,,,;) )
    I sample, said cupcakes…and realize the dilemma with the frosting struggles…I HAD FROSTED THESE SPECIAL CUPCAKES, NOT WITH THE FROSTING….YET, WITH THE RAW COOKIE DOUGH!!!!!
    That’s right, I accidently, had tinted up the cookie dough…not the frosting…I literally could have wiped the entire K class out!!!! Thankfully, only 2 cupcakes were eaten. A couple of bright Kindergarten students, must have alerted the others, to the horrific taste of those beautiful looking Santa cupcakes! Funny now, then, not so much! ;)

  7. I was outside hanging up laundry and had my one year old out with me. With Pandora coming out of my pocket and clothes pins attached to my shirt, my focus was solely on getting the laundry up so I could get on to the next chore of the day. I hear grunts from behind me but it doesn’t register until about the 4th one. I turn around to see my one year old gripping the deck trying to keep from falling off the corner of the top step! I drop what was in my arms and went over to take her down! Then I realized I never carried her down off the deck with me! Lol

    Side note the deck only has 3 small steps but she was just learning to maneuver them! Lol

    Then there’s the time I could tell you I took my 3 year old to Walmart with only his T-shirt & undies on. I even checked a boo boo on his knee and never noticed he had no shorts on! Lol

  8. I was having a terrible day and my three year old who hasn’t been potty trained for very long had peed her pants. This was after I had asked fifty times if she needed to go and heard “no” each time. So, I yelled, “why did you do that?” The next day she was playing with some dolls and made one yell to the other, “why did you do that?” in a very angry tone. I was ashamed and embarrassed to say the very least.

  9. I have so many of them. I am just very thankful that GOD and my children allow me to start fresh every day.

  10. Oh, which to pick? I’ve definitely yelled at my girls out of severe frustration with my imperfectness and myself in general…last night at 4 in the morning as a matter of fact. I’m so tired of trying to be perfect…

  11. Never introduce your toddler to Easter eggs before you introduce regular eggs. My daughter is 3 1/2 years old and still thinks that chocolate comes from eggs. She asked for eggs for breakfast one morning and cried when I broke it into the frying pan. She still won’t eat a real egg!

  12. Hmm…, well, there’s the time I was in the bathroom and hard my 1-yr.-old start crying in the next room. I peeked out to find my 3-yr.-old with a guilty face standing next to a 1/2 empty bottle of olive oil and my 1-yr.-old completely drenched in it, not to mention the rug and wood floor. That one was fun to clean up!

  13. Here’s my imperfect mommy moment. It’s an excerpt from a book/bible study I am writing titled All I Really Need to Know about Jesus I Learned from my Kids. Here goes:

    My girls went to a local gymnastics class every Thursday. They were about 5 and 3 at the time. Looking back, I realize how adorable they looked in their pink and purple leotards—ponytails swaying to and fro—with their monkey-like mobility ready to burst! They absolutely loved that class, and the instructor was nothing short of a saint. There was just one teensy-weensy problem with the whole thing: we NEVER seemed to make it on time. I would try to squeeze in just one more thing before we left {which every mom knows equates to about seven more things}; or someone’s shoes mysteriously disappeared; or someone had an accident on the way to the bathroom {“I almost made it, Mommy. Almost.”} Ughh. As a result, I began to really dread Thursdays.

    I didn’t dread Thursdays for the reason you may think. It actually wasn’t because we were late. No, I dreaded Thursdays because of the mommy meltdown I became while trying to get everyone out the door. Tug a shoe on just a little too fast here; yell “would you just cooooome on!” there; slam a couple of cabinet doors. Nothing drastic but definitely not my best mommy self. It would always end the same: After having acted rather rushful {a term my daughter made up to describe this endemic behavior}, I would apologize to those two sweet little faces—often with tears in my eyes—because mommy had messed up (once again). Then we would finally be on our way to gymnastics.

    One time near the end of the class year, we were late… again. I lost my temper… again. I was apologizing… again. My rhetoric was the same, but my daughter’s response was anything but. After my all-too-familiar spiel about being sorry for losing my temper, Lena’s words pierced my heart more than any Bible verse could.

    From the back of the van came her little voice, repeating something I often try to remind them of… “It’s OK, Mommy. Nobody is perfect. Only God is perfect.”

    Wow. The gospel according to my five-year old was convicting and reassuring all at the same time. She got it! She got it far better than her mom had been. God is the only one who is perfect. And by trying to be that perfect mom, I’m not conning anyone but myself.

    That moment has stuck with me like no other. Lena and her siblings continue to blow me away with their observations and wisdom. It’s no wonder that Jesus said I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children (Matthew 11:25). He knew they would be the true teachers.

    Thanks for reading… I am LOVING these comments. It makes us all feel so human to read we aren’t alone!

  14. On a “no warm ups” day at school, I told my kids I would order pizza and have delivered for their lunch. During their lunch period, I get a call saying they pizza hasn’t been delivered yet. Oops! It was one of “those” days at work and I was so busy I forgot to order it. Of course they were booked at that moment and my kids didn’t get lunch delivered until an hour later, which disrupted class for everyone. And left them starving. I’m sure I was nominated for Worst Mom of the Year award that day.
    Thankfully I’ve been forgiven. But unfortunately, that’s not my only “forgotten” thing on my list.

  15. the moment a not so nice word comes out of your childs mouth and grandma is around…hanging head in shame…

  16. When I first became a mom I thought that if my child needed me, I’d somehow make it to wherever he was and save him before he got hurt, kind of like a superhero. I just loved him sooo much that I thought there was no way I could fail him in that way. That delusion ended when my firstborn was 8 months old and rolled off our bed while my husband and I were watching a movie in the living room. Oh the sick feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when I heard that “thump”! Poor baby. :(

  17. Where do I begin? Nothing makes me feel worse than to be “the mom” who forgot to send snack at school. As I cried, my little one at the time said it is okay mommy and gave me a huge hug and kiss. Why do we as moms sweat the small stuff. At the end of the day, did anyone die because i forgot snack???? Nope!

  18. Oh, wow, this couldn’t have come at a more timely moment! I just had an imperfect mom moment last night. I found myself in an argument with my husband and teenage son. It was loud and ugly. Yes, it was also an imperfect wife moment :-( Today, I am thankful for God’s grace.

  19. Last Winter was one of the first Winters of my children’s young lives where we had enough snow to ride sleds. I was almost excited as they were (maybe more). We got my 5, 2, and 1 yr olds dressed in snowsuit a and boots and brought out the under-used sleds we bought them. We have a small hill right outside our back door, but unfortunately, an old clothesline pole is not too far down the hill, so we were very careful to always pull or push the sled away from the direction of the pole. Eventually, my 5 yr old son wanted to go really fast alone in the sled, so thinking back to my own childhood fun, I encouraged him to lay on his stomach on the sled so it would go faster down the hill. (We had tons of fun like this when I was a kid!). My husband gave me a confused look, wondering why I would encourage our son to slide head-first, when we’re usually so cautious with our kids. But I assured him we would be fine. I’m sure you can guess, but my husband trotted the usual few-step course down the hill, directing away from the clothesline pole, finally letting go so my son could fly through the snow. And I could only watch as the sled turned in the snow last-minute towards the pole and he hit it head-first. I can only thank God for keeping my son safe that day- he only ended up with a goose-egg on his forehead, but I learned my lesson. It may have been fun, and we may have been spared the bruises when we were kids, but I won’t encourage belly-down sledding again.

  20. My 5 year old son absolutely lives for his soccer games on Saturdays…we count sleeps all week until the next one. He got to spend the night at Grandma’s on Friday night and I told her to make sure he got there by 11 for his game and we would meet them there. At about 10:40 I looked at my calendar and realized his game was at 10 that week! I called her right away and she got him there for the last 10 minutes or so but I felt so horrible, especially since he looks forward to it all week long!

  21. The most embarrassing/horrible one of late… trying to have some 1:1 mommy-daughter time after little brother was born. Ran to store together, came out and placed items in trunk. DD says, ‘Mommy you forgot to push the cart fast and jump on.’ (We also yell Whee!) Of course I forgot in my sleep-deprived state. I also failed to think it through with an EMPTY cart. Needless to say, the cart flipped up and crashed on DD’s knees before I could catch it. She was very scared and badly bruised but luckily was not seriously injured. [Duh! Smack on forehead]

  22. I sent my 1st grader on his first full day of school with his lunch. I didn’t realize he didn’t know how to open his cheesestick, juice box, or applesauce! I was so embarrassed & felt like a horrible Mom.

  23. So many to choose from so I will just share the most recent… Just yesterday morning my son asks for chocolate milk so I grab his sippy cup off my night stand go put some milk in and we only had half a cup so I add my kefir to fill the rest. Put in his ovaltine and give it to him he said its yucky I said oh just drink it it’s just the smoothie milk. So doing dishes later washing the sippy it was all curdled apparently the sippy had old milk from the night before. You will be delighted to know he didn’t get sick. I guess the kefir did its job. It smelled awful I felt horrible.

  24. I once accidentally locked my infant daughter in a car in -30 degree weather! Yes, I was sleep-deprived :) Thankfully, it was close to home and husband ran over with our spare key.

  25. I have too many imperfect mom moments to include here. Fortunately, one is recorded on video for posterity! We usually want to have our “good” moments recorded, but on one of our home movies, I am recorded changing the angle of the high chair and simultaneously crushing my infant’s arm in between the arm of the chair and the seat. While she is howling in pain, I am then recorded fretting over the whole thing. Good times. Whenever my now 9 year old watches it, she reminds me how “hurt” her when she was a baby, and I get a serving of humble pie.

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