Being a mom isn’t very fun some days. It is hands down the hardest job there is out there. Anyone who tells you any different, either hasn’t tried it before or they’re lying. Trying to get your kids to do what they’re told seems like an impossible task most days. This week has been a rough one for me as a mother. I’m not sure who said it was the “terrible twos” because three is worse…much, much worse. I’d take two over three any day. No matter what I do Logan will not listen to me, in fact, most of the time he does the exact opposite. He’s testing boundaries like never before. Nothing works; he just doesn’t care about the consequences. After about a week of this, I just couldn’t take it anymore. This morning was a particularly difficult one. It wasn’t long before I found myself curled up in a ball on the floor, sobbing because I just didn’t know what else to do. I was beyond frustrated and felt like a complete and utter failure as a mother. Being a mom had always been my dream, but suddenly I felt like I just wasn’t cut out for the job.
I wished more than anything that I had someone at my side to give me a hug and tell me that everything was going to be ok. As a single mother, that someone wasn’t there. Instead, my concerned three year old came and put his arm around me while the tears flowed down my face. Somewhere in the course of my crying Logan heard me say that I just couldn’t do this anymore. To this, my sweet three year old whispered, “Yes you can Mommy. You just have to practice your happy.” Again another testament, that I will learn far more from my three year old than he could ever learn from me.
He was right, I had gotten in a rut lately with everything that was going on, and I had forgotten to “practice my happy.” My toddler had to remind me that happiness is a choice. It doesn’t just happen, you have to make it happen, which sometimes takes some practice. You could focus on the negative and continue in misery, or you could choose to get up off the floor and find your happiness. It’s up to you. As for me, I’m off to go “practice my happy.”