I think admitting that the “Littles” stage of life is hard would be healthy for all of us.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m drowning in my life.

Most days I’m just trying to keep my head above water, some days I succeed, and some days… I’m really glad we have early bedtime at our house. 

So often we try and present our best selves, no one wants everyone else to think they’re a mess.

We want people to think we have it together.

We want people to think that we calmly load our kids in the car, that dinner is always well received and cooked from scratch, we want people to think that we live in immaculately clean houses, and that we woke up looking this good.

I wish we were willing to admit that life isn’t perfect.

I wish we felt free to admit that life with littles is exhausting and difficult. I wish that we felt free to admit that we’re failing a little (or a lot), that we’re frustrated, annoyed, and just tired.

I wish we felt free to admit that we’re overwhelmed, that we yell at our kids about stupid stuff, and that if anyone else gets sick… it’s over.

I wish we felt free to admit that we need help, even if “help” is just another mom commiserating with us over Chick Fil-A lemonade.

Even more than we’re afraid to admit it to other people, I think we’re afraid to admit to ourselves that life isn’t as perfect as we’d planned.

I wish we felt free to admit that most days we’re not thriving, we’re just surviving.

At my house, we are surviving.

Every day has it’s challenges… most of those start with trying to convince someone to put on pants, shoes, use the bathroom, or eat a vegetable.

There are days when I swear I’m going to lose my freaking mind. There are days when I yell things like “NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO TALK TO MOMMY”.

I end most days really frustrated. I want to be “nice mom”, but mostly I just want people to STOP talking to me.

There are days when I have the best of intentions and… I end up letting the kids watch a movie because… my best laid plans were murdered by reality.

In the midst of the chaos and frustration, it’s easy to berate myself, easy to point out the flaws, and so easy to forget the good.

I want all the days to be perfect, but in my attempt to look for perfect frustration free days, I often overlook the perfect moments.

Every day has a perfect moment or two, and recognizing these moments is important.

These moments are what keep me going, remind me that things could have gone worse, and remind me that this is what I love about life with littles.

I like to think of these moments as small miracles.

For me these are moments are simple, they look like the Princess playing “dishes” in the sink while I cook dinner. They look like me and Harry Potter blowing through yet another book series at bedtime. They look like conversations with AsthmaMan about what it means to be a good friend.

These moments are overlooked in the busyness of life, they aren’t planned, they aren’t social media worthy, they don’t look like the “perfect” moment.

These moments aren’t meant to be perfect or well scripted. They are moments of calm in in the chaos, moments where we connect and enjoy each other’s company. They’re moments of happiness, simple miracles in the midst of an imperfect world.

So admit it, you’re drowning, I’m drowning. The whole thing isn’t going to get better tomorrow, it’s not going to get better next week or even next year. This is the stage of life we’re in right now. It’s rough… but we will make it out. And in the meantime, there are some really beautiful (and funny) moments that make the whole journey worth it.