Toys scattered across the floor. Dirty dishes piled in the sink. A load of wet laundry still sitting in the washer. The microwave beeps from the warmed up frozen meal you found for dinner. You don’t even move to get it because you’re mindlessly scrolling your Facebook feed, too lazy to get up. It’s not like you worked out today. Or left the house. Or basically did anything. 100% beat. How can a total of nine waking hours alone with a twenty-one pound human possibly make you feel this way? No wonder people say parenting is so hard.

But is it really?

When I was on maternity leave, I learned that the success of my day completely depended on my attitude. Yes, maybe some days really were better than others, but there were fussy days that were great and fussy days that were awful. It wasn’t just my kid. It had to do with me too my parenting, patience and priorities.

This may seem like common sense, but it’s easy to forget how the determination to finish that load of laundry… or sink full of dishes… or last scroll through your Facebook feed can change the “success” of your day. Were you drained by your needy little human who interrupted your every attempt to finish something? Or did you have a fun, eventful day with some necessities sprinkled throughout? That all depends on your day’s expectations from the start.

Parenting. If you face it head-on knowing that it’s not always pretty and it’s definitely not perfect, rainbows and sunshine really can follow. All the sudden, the littlest annoyances can become funny moments instead of frustrating ones.

Patience. Doesn’t take long to learn parenting and patience go hand-in-hand. Parenting without patience is like walking through quicksand, and it can definitely get the best of us. If you don’t think you have it in you, check your priorities.

Priorities. This really matters most. If parenting isn’t my priority, then I have no patience. And if I have no patience, then parenting is way harder. Put parenting first, and the rest will follow.

As much as I’ve learned, I still have to remind my myself of this advice again and again, like that time my husband told me last minute that he was going hunting for the weekend. Not only last minute, but the second weekend in a row leaving me parenting alone with the little. How could I possibly get anything done with yet another dad-free daunting day? Attitude check and three words:

Parenting. Patience. Priorities.

Instead of moping about the laundry or holing up inside the house, we woke up, adventured out and slayed that day, all because mama put momming first.

Kendra Germenis
Kendra joined the mom club in 2016, followed by the #boymom club in Summer 2019. Kendra loves to write, and for AMB, enjoys sharing her new parent experiences, tips, and general love of Austin. For her, life is a balance of spending quality time with her family, pursuing her program management career, and still soaking up life and adventures. She also freelances through her art and design shop, Kitsy Co. Assorted loves: art, date nights, culture, road trips, Bravo, breweries, chocolate, house remodeling, sunshine, live music and patios.

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