The Top 7 Signs You are a Mom

I never realized 9 year ago how different my life would be when we welcomed our little baby boy to the world. My husband and I had new roles, daddy and mommy. The blessings we have gained far outweigh any of the challenges, but sometimes I wonder whether I lost part of my brain that day.

Do you know what I mean?

Yes, I can still multi-task. In fact, I think I am uber-talented at multi-tasking. Honestly, I don’t know a mom who is not good at that. We have to be. I actually think God specifically gifted women with a special multi-tasking gene in our DNA. When we added our precious daughter 7 years ago, I think what was left of my brain went on overload.

I found myself doing or not doing things correctly. I found myself saying, “pick your battles” so many times. I found myself not caring about things that once would have driven me crazy.

Sound familiar?

So, take a look at this list and see if you relate to any of them. If I had to bet, I would say at least 75% of you have been there, done that.

Top 7 Signs You are a Mom

1. You bring your two year old to an Easter egg hunt and your friends point out that he has two different shoes on.

No worries! I meant to do that. [Tweet “Doesn’t every mom grab two completely different shoes and place them on her child’s feet? #Top7Signs #mom”] I do. And I used to do it pretty frequently. At least it was a left and right shoe. I could have made my son wear two of the same, so I say, SCORE ONE FOR MOM!

2. You rushed out the door with your still not-walking child, get to the store and realize he has no shoes on.

Again, no worries! It’s not like he can walk anyway, so in the cart he goes! And please, don’t give me “the look” because my child has no shoes on in a store. Maybe that’s just the way our family rolls. Or maybe I just forgot. It’s not like you never wore your shirt inside out because I know you did. Probably more than once.

3. Your car looks like a mobile shoe store.

It never fails. The older my daughter gets, the more shoes I find in my car. I can’t tell you how many times we have been walking out the door and she has no shoes on. (note the recurring theme here!) When I ask her where her shoes are, she proudly replies, “In the car.” I don’t know how this happened or when it happened. But it needs to stop. Now.

4. You’ve poured other beverages into a bowl of cereal.

This one really proves that I am either overtired or have really lost my brain. One day I poured water into my daughter’s Cheerios. Another time, I poured orange juice into my son’s cereal. At least both options were healthy. It’s not like I poured soda in the bowl! Maybe that morning, I thought my son needed extra vitamin C.

5. The kitchen cabinets become a refrigerator.

You can’t tell me I am the only one that has used a cabinet as a fridge! After pouring my daughter a glass of milk, I put it away. The only problem was that I put it in the cabinet with the cereal and then walked away. Needless to say, it was not cool to find a brand new gallon of milk all nice and toasty in the cabinet!

6. Your daughter’s outfits don’t match. At all.

This one kind of surprised me. When I was younger, I always imagined having a little girl who would wear cute outfits that matched top to bottom. Not sure why I thought that since I was never like that, but still, that was the plan. I tried. I really did, but my plan was obviously not my 7 year old daughter’s plan. I’ve learned that it’s actually awesome she does that. She is an individual and somehow pulls it off.

7. Your children eat the same thing day after day.

Especially when our children were younger, this was a big one. I have never seen pickier eaters than my children. Since my husband and I are pretty good cooks, we just assumed they would want to eat grilled ribeyes, sauteed mushrooms and roasted green beans. I mean who WOULDN’T want that? Um. Our children. And it wasn’t like they didn’t have teeth. Instead, my daughter wanted night after night to eat rice cereal with applesauce and cinnamon. Every night. You know, the kind that the little ones WITHOUT teeth eat. And my son? A bowl of cheerios, but not just for breakfast, for dinner as well. And many times, I caved. I had to pick my battles. Better they eat something, than throw a fit and not eat.

Are you with me? Do any of those scenarios sound familiar to you?

Motherhood is awesome, but it also has its challenges. I think most of the challenges actually come from feeling like we need to always do everything right. We all ~~know~~ think we know that the mom next to us has it all together and has never fed her child a pop tart for dinner or never had a child throw a fit when she picks out a perfectly matched outfit and refuses to wear it. She probably has perfectly just-from-the-spa, manicured nails and has definitely never used a cabinet for a refrigerator!

But that mom doesn’t exist. She only exists in our minds and she is a beast. She makes us feel like we have lost our brains and that everyone else is watching and judging us. You know what? Most people aren’t. Definitely not most moms. They know deep down in their heart of hearts that they have been there, done that and they get it.

I haven’t lost my brain. It’s just my focus is on more important things. Like making sure my children become exactly who God intended them to be. If that means they wear two different shoes, mismatched outfits, or even prefer orange juice with their Cheerios, I’m ok with that.

I hope you are too, moms. You are doing an outstanding job! Instead of beating yourself up for what you’ve done or not done, take joy in knowing that you are doing your best and that when your children are older, they will remind you incessantly of the day that the cabinet became a fridge. And you will all laugh.