Ok, so let me preface this post by saying I’m trying to make light of a very real situation. I’m a mom and I lose my cool more often than I’d like to admit to people. I lost my cool probably 10 times before lunch yesterday! All joking aside, I really did loose it yesterday before finishing my first cup of coffee. I recently asked for your feedback on the type of posts you enjoy reading from me and a number of you said more mom life posts.
So in no particular order except how they popped into my mind…here are 15 reasons why you might be losing your cool as a mom (on the reg):
1. You haven’t had/finished your first cup of coffee yet. Let’s be real mamas, coffee is our fuel! I don’t know what I would do without my black coffee in the mornings. And as in the case of yesterday, it is so important to finish that cup of coffee before anything could happen that might trigger you to loose your cool. Half awake/half asleep (however you prefer to look at it) is no way to handle what a toddler can throw your way.
2. Your toddler decides to throw a tantrum within minutes of waking up (and before you’ve had your first cup of coffee). No joke, Mason literally started crying less than 5 minutes after waking up. I believe it was over the fact I didn’t get his baba filled with almond milk fast enough…and if it wasn’t that, then I am perplexed as to what it could have been. At this age, emotions are running wild and us mamas get the brunt of those mixed emotions.
3. You thinking that you can reason with a toddler. I know better, but when Mason’s not doing what I need him to do I start to reason with him. Me thinking it will make things better which in actuality it makes it that much worse when his behavior doesn’t change. I know I can’t be the only mama who has tried to level with an almost 2 year old with no success.
4. When you can’t take a step without tripping on a toy. Mason’s toys are all over the house and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been so close to dropping him because I step on a large block and almost eat it. After taking multiple steps each time stepping on a block, ball, or magnetic piece I can’t take it anymore…am I too dramatic?! Kids toys are like a mine field except they’re not buried. You can see they are everywhere you just can’t figure out a way to miss all of them on your way from the living room to the kitchen.
5. When your child decides food isn’t for eating but for making splatter art. Yes, you read that right. Mason’s breakfast has all too often turned into mush that ends up everywhere except in his mouth. I stepped in some mushed banana on my way to tell him for the millionth time that food is for eating, not for playing or feeding the dogs (unless it’s dog food, of course). Oh my heavens, it’s like talking to the wall that is covered in banana mush! Oh and after making more than one meal because the first was refused it gets more than a little frustrating because you don’t want them to starve but you hate wasting all this food that isn’t getting eaten.
6. Feeling like a broken record. This get’s me every time. I am a broken record not just with Mason but with the pups and even sometimes with Justin. I love him dearly, but I swear sometimes he doesn’t hear a word I say and I have to repeat myself over and over again…and after doing that all day with Mason and the pups I’m ready to pull all my hair out. That would be losing your cool, now wouldn’t it.
7. Getting bit repeatedly. I don’t know why I’m the ONLY person Mason thinks it’s ok to bit but he does and he will. I can almost sense when it’s going to happen so I try and brace myself for it, but it never helps and it doesn’t feel good. After a long/hard day, it definitely makes me lose my cool (and by cool I really want to say Sh!t).
8. Having just picked up the whole house only to have baby tornado come through and tear it all apart in less than a minute! I know you’re thinking I should know better than to pick up the house while he’s awake but I seriously can’t function sometimes when the house is ripped apart. I somehow cope with it most days but then there are the days that I feel some anxiety creep in when I look around my living room and everything is a mess.
9. When you’ve already changed so many diapers and as soon as he’s all dressed again, he takes a poop. No joke, this is a huge pet peeve of mine and one I have NO control over and I don’t think Mason does either. But what’s even worse than that is when you just changed a dirty diaper only to find out he wasn’t finished yet…I don’t think alone makes you loose your cool but combine it with a few others from this list and it could be the tipping point.
10. When you miss a workout because there was no nap time. Kids, if you’re reading this (insert 😂), your nap time is our mom time. For me afternoon nap time is my workout time. It’s been working great for the past month but when Mason refuses to take a nap my workout either doesn’t happen at all or is drastically cut short and then I’m left sweaty and unable to shower. I feel like I’m a better mama and more equip to handle less than ideal situations when I’ve had my workout for the day. I know you’re probably thinking than why don’t I get my workout done and over with before he wakes up in the morning…let me tell you I’ve tried and what ends up happening is he just wakes up earlier. Oh and then I’m grumpy because, less sleep. I’m a night owl because that’s when I get the bulk of my blog work done. Quiet, uninterrupted time!
11. When you haven’t had adult time in a long time. This one in all seriousness is super important and critical to not losing it on the regular. I feel like it can be hard to find your mom tribe that you can lean on and have mom time without the kiddos. I probably sound like a horrible mama right now. I love mom time with the kids but I feel like for my sanity, I need time to not have to worry about my mom duties. As I mentioned earlier, it’s one thing that makes me a better mom overall. To have time where I’m not mom but can be a friend and have a real conversation without having my eye on my LO or getting interrupted by the needs of our kids. Again, that sounds horrible but I hope you understand what I mean.
12. Lack of quality sleep. I can’t believe this one is showing up so low on the list. ie I can’t believe it took this many other reasons before this one popped into my head. Sleep, or lack there of is probably the main culprit why you lose your cool as a mom. It’s so much harder to process our emotions properly when we’re running off of little/poor quality sleep. I remember at the beginning my emotions were like a rollercoaster (much like Mason’s are now) because I barely got any sleep and I rarely, if ever actually finished a cup of coffee.
13. Having a selfish moment. I know I can’t be the only mama who struggles sometimes with having to be selfless. You hear it from so many directions before having kids to enjoy being selfish while you can. Well I still find myself at times wishing the day could just be about me and what I want. I know that isn’t possible and honestly I love my days being about my main little man but sometimes I get pulled towards wishing I had that freedom to just do what I want to do and when I can’t I get frustrated. Frustration that can sometimes turn into losing it when everything seems to not be going according to plan.
14. Thinking/holding onto the notion that everything will go according to plan. As a parent you pretty much know that nothing will go according to plan so why do we let it bother us when it doesn’t. We know deep down going into the day that there is no way everything could fall into place and go perfectly. But, when everything is seemingly falling apart before it even begins to go right, who could blame us for losing it a little bit.
15. Mom guilt. This is probably the worst of them all. Right as you feel you might be losing it, you get that guilty feeling because you should feel blessed to be in the situation that you are in, at home with your LO getting to raise them and spend all this quality time together before everything changes when they head off to preschool. That mom guilt almost ignites the losing of your cool or what I like to call the spiral effect. It’s bad enough that you’re losing it in front of your kid but add in the feeling of being out of control and unable to stop it and you’re now feeling so much worse. It’s like society is looking down on you in your own home having a conversation why you should be happy and you have no reason to lose it in the first place.
So I got through the 15 but I’m sure I could come up with more because #momlife. What I’m trying to get out in this post is that it’s super hard to be a full time mom and unless you are one, you don’t really get it. We love our babies more than anyone else and yet sometimes we get frustrated and upset, and that’s totally ok. There’s no other job that’s so rewarding but also so hard. You’re working around the clock, or at least need to be available at a moments notice. You set yourself aside to focus solely on your tiny human/s. Your patience is being tested all the time and toddlers especially love to push your buttons/boundaries to see what they can get away with.
Now that I’ve vented and shared all this with you I must say these pictures of Mason are just the cutest. He just got his haircut the other day and well he looks so much more grown up. It kind of makes me want to cry when I look at them just because it just means my baby is getting older and before I know it, he’ll be independent and our relationship with have evolved into something different than it is now. No matter how often I find myself on edge or on the brink of a meltdown myself I wouldn’t change this time for anything!
Thank you so much for reading this super long post. I hope you enjoyed the realness 😉 and as always thank you so much for taking the time to visit today!
