- Life isn’t as serious as I used to think. I used to think when you become a parent, life gets REAL SERIOUS. Dr.’s, school, raising this tiny human to become a pure genius, and keeping them alive every day, that’s tough. But, I mean, really. How do you have 2 awesome, crazy kids and not have fun? Erase the shitty times of no sleep, your tiny human taking all of the food from your plate leading you to total starvation, and scream fests between you and said toddler before bed every.single.night. over a toothbrush, and you’ve got yourself a real recipe for total fantasticalness! Life doesn’t have to be serious when you become a parent. It’s literally THE BEST JOB I’ve ever had in my life, BY FAR! Your kids give you the opportunity to live life through someone else and FOR someone else and live out dreams you once had as a kid that maybe didn’t come true! Embrace it! They won’t be this little for long.Â
- Go with your gut. You know, I used to second guess myself a lot. I used to not have a backbone. I used to shy away from conflict. My kids changed that…well, and so did my husband but, mostly my kids. Once I had our first, that total mama bear instinct kicked in. BUT, once I had my second, I grew this phenomenal backbone that I never thought I had in me. People who didn’t seem to have my kids or my family’s best interest in mind, no longer seemed important and I had to tell them to GTFO. Things that didn’t feel right for me or my kids, got the brakes checked on it REAL FAST. & The only things that seemed to matter any more were the things that were beneficial to my children, which led to this amazing gut instinct that I now don’t only rely on but, in times of need, I’m desperate for.
- It’s okay to have a messy house, and have people over. Okay okay, I’m still a little guilty of not totally following this one BUT, I have learned that it’s totally okay not to be perfect & not to ALWAYS have this impeccably clean home when people pop in! I mean, not to say that I don’t dump my huge laundry mountain from my sofa onto my bed when I see your car pull in the driveway but, you didn’t really want to go in my bedroom anyway, right?
- Date night is important. There was a while there when hubby and I didn’t make date night a priority and I will tell you, my anxiety increased, which caused strain in our relationship, and life wasn’t as fun! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE time with hubby AND the kids but, sometimes we’re desperate for a date night. MAKE THE TIME FOR IT. Even if its putting the kids to bed an hour early and gorging on pizza and ice cream while you binge Netflix, DO IT. Head here to find a great way to connect with your SO!
- Friending as a mom is hard but, once you find good ones, keep them. It doesn’t take a “talk every day, know all your darkest secrets” friendship to be happy with your girlfriends. Sometimes friending when you’re a parent is hard, like, REALLY hard and it sucks. When you finally find good ones though, it’s fan-freaking-tastic! I have groups: Facebook Girlfriends- you both wish you could make time but, there is too much shit going on and your schedules don’t match so you’re FB BFF’s and its convenient that way. Play Date Girlfriends– The ones that at the last minute or a day beforehand, you can quickly plan a simple play date for YOUR sanity and their parenting style is basically the same, so you watch over her kids while she talks and uses hand gestures and gets carried away because she hasn’t had adult interaction of her kind in two weeks, and she watches the kids as they play while you do the same. Best Friends Forever, even the long distance kind- These are the ones who knew you before you were preggo and in mom mode all the time so, these are the ones you really need when a Hell has broken loose. They know how to bring you back to the days when letting loose was more  than half a glass of wine and 4 slices of pizza.
