Okay, I know I am not a bad mom....

I am going to make a couple of confessions, but I expect you guys to make some too before I turn myself into HRS....

*yesterday I let my daughter stay in her overnight pullup for more than 1 hour after waking up
*then I gave her co-co puffs for breakfast
*their room is a mess, so messy that I won't go in there (they are 3 and 4, not really at the age to make their room spotless)
*I have missed both of their last check-ups, didn't even make the appointments, now it is time for new ones
*I can't really remember their pediatricians name...
*tonight I think I am going to open a can of mac and cheese for dinner...

Okay, I'm not a mom, but your little one and I have a lot in common.
Today I:
Took a sick day from work
Am still wearing the loung pants and T I slept in
Ate three bowls of Captn Crunch
Should be cleaning my room and packing to move, but I'm not
I haven't been to the dentist in two years
And I'm thinking about eating baked beans and tortillas for dinner

I know it's not the same, but I just had this huge "How old am I?" moment reading your post. There's nothing wrong with being slovenly!

-My kids' room is a mess too and the sad part is... it's my mess. I do most of my art projects in their room because I don't have anywhere else to go.

-I let my kids watch way too much tv. Nothing adult like (except Inuyasha) but a lot of cartoons. I guess it's because I watch a lot of cartoons myself. It's getting so bad my two year old daughter can recite the commercials word for word.

-Sometimes I let my son eat oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner if he wants it.

-Sometimes ( but not too often) I forget to tell my son he has homework.

-I don't always comb my daughters hair.

- I curse a lot in front of them. Not AT them but just like in normal conversations with my husband, I'll slip and say a curse word. Luckily, I don't have a problem with my son cursing too, but I still know it's bad.

Well, as long as its not a bad mother of the year contest.....
I rarely brush her rat's nest...because she fights me every step of the way...even when I resort to asking her if she wants to be "pretty"
I swear too much around them
Don't care where she eats, so long as if she eats
Let the two year old eat doughnuts for lunch today, as well as the hershey's kiss.
Spend far too much time in front of this computer/idiot box while she watches t.v. and the baby either lies on me or (rarely) on the couch.
oh, yeah...and I didnt clean a damned thing today...but I did do the friggin taxes.

OH MY GOD!!! CALL CHILDREN'S SERVICES!!
No, really. What's the big deal? We are not perfect. My husband is leaving tomorrow on yet another trip and the three of us are having pizza, spaghetti, and mac and cheese with tuna every night. I am using disposable dishware.
We stay in our jammies until the last possible moment. Hell, I don't beat them. I feed them. I make them sleep. I play with them. I'm cool.

I sometimes leave ds sleeping in the car for 5 min while I run in to drop off movies, pick up something from the house... etc etc.

I've begun to list "bad Mommy moments" in my journal. My baby is 4 mos. old. At about 3 mos., I went out to the back porch to tell a cab that we didn't need it anymore and the door locked behind me. The baby was under her activity center on the floor all alone! I live in an apt. so I went to the front door and called anyone...finally someone let me in and I went to the manager's door, but then I decided to just try our inside door just in case, and it was open, Thank God. The baby had just started to fuss. Bad.Mommy.

yep. my little one had cereal for lunch today. (it was her choice) We had leftovers for dinner. When they were still hungry I made popcorn. bad bad mommy.
Other bad mommy moments are:
*My kids socks are rarely matched with their correct mate (same color most times but sometimes not even then)
*I used to say it was 8 o'clock (bedtime) when it was only 7 before my oldest could tell time if I was really tired
*one word: dishes

Cheers to the rotten mommies of the world!

well, kids are at dad's house but here you go...the list from last week...

*allowed daughter to wear too-short dress that showed her underwear b/c I was just too tired to fight with her
*swear way too much in front of them
*too much tv
*too much sugar
*let my daughter who is lactose intolerant eat regular ice cream
*tell daughter to go back to bed when she came in my room in the middle of the night after a nightmare
*cereal for snacks
*daughter's hair is waaaaay too long in the bangs, but I'm too lazy to cut it
*allowed son to wear the same pants 3 days in a row, for sleeping AND school, because I was just too tired to argue. He did change his underpants.
*let them listen to Tenacious D. Well, not all of it!


so, so much more. but how about Good Mommy Confessions??

I agree with senorcoconut. I love them, feed them, don't abuse them, clothe them, provide a roof over their heads.

Okay, we are all agreed that Cereal is one of the 4 food groups then? Good.

Yep. 'Round here it's: Cereal, Toast, Cheese n' Crackers, Carrots n' Dressing (which should actually be Dressing n' Carrots). Four food groups, right there.

Heck, that's pretty much what I eat when the kids aren't here...

Kay

I think dressing is a separate food group in itself!

Definitely agree with the dressing category...as long as ketchup is included in that..or ketchup another separate category on its own...you'ld think so in our house....its amazing how much you can eat with just one fry. One of whatever will scoop up approximately 1/2c. sauce, without even a bite taken out, unless by mistake or accidently, of course.

**Yell "go to sleep" in the middle of the night when my 5 year old starts crying from a bad dream - rather than get up.
**I'm doing good in the food department because my daughter gains weight so easily.
but Ranch dressing (low fat now) is definately a food group
**Let her watch way too many cartoons
**Swear infront of her too much
**try to get away with running my fingers through her hair most mornings instead of brushing it.
**Don't make her brush her teeth every morning - I'll usually tell her she can do it later if I'm in a hurry.
**don't contribute to teacher gift funds (x-mas, maternity leave/going away gift, etc...)
**Think 3-4 rounds of candyland is enough for one evening.

I guess overall I'm just a little lazy, and pretty forgetful most of the time so it's just those types of things that I feel bad about.
but my daughter is bathed, fed, and has a warm bed and a lot of love so I'm not worried.

All you moms who struggle with fixing hair should do what my mom did to me: get them a total block-head short haircut that you can ignore.

My hair was really thick and impossible--still is--and even though I always dreamed about having long and fabulous hair as a little kid I sure did hate it when my mom tried to fix it.

Of course the downside is I was pretty androgynous because of it. Until 5th grade I think!


Anyway...I love these topics. I want to be a mom in like a year or so, and I'm so glad there's a place for moms to come and express their human-ness. Thanks everybody.

Ketchup is definitely it's own group. I think we go through a bottle every couple weeks 'round here. As well as one of the big bottles of Annie's Goddess dressing. AKA "Favorite Dressing".

As much as I beat myself up about my parenting laziness, I knew I was doing something right when the kids and I were visting friends and they REQUESTED veggies and dressing for a snack. I was pretty darn proud. It made up for all the times I've sent them to school with nappy hair and funky outfits... ;)

Stargirley, are you my long-lost twin? I think you may be...

Kay

There was no (*acceptable*) breakfast foods in my house this morning. My three year old was rubbing her belly and saying she was hungry and asking for chicken. I told her "no, you can't have chicken for breakfast" and offered her a frozen french toast stick (which she normally likes, yes, frozen, but this one had blueberries and apparently we don't like blueberries)

Fed up, I walked out of the room to finish getting ready for work, monkey girl then climbed up on top of the stove, grabbed the bag of pretzels and went and sat on the couch to share with her sister. When I saw this I thought "What the hell, pretzels are like bread and aren't they sharing?"

Maybe Kayke. Let me ask you this. Would you think it was weird for a kid to not like condiments. No ketchup of the fries - no barbeque on the nuggets, nothing on the hotdogs? I think it's like a twilight zone episode whenever My step daughter comes over to visit. How can you be a kid and NOT like condiments? When my dughter was younger- like barely talking age, she would request "dip it" with anything you put in front of her face. My step daughter cries if her hotdog has ketchup on it. and she wants nothing to do with Jelly on her "peanut butter and jelly sandwich" I think it's very strange and I always ask if she wants some - just in case. and when she says no, I ask "are you sure" lol Tell me I'm not the only one who thinks it's weird.

I will chime in for all the picky eaters of the world...this is totally normal! (at least to us) I would never want peanut butter on my PBJ's, can't stand ketchup..if my food accidentally touches ketchup I get disgusted. Would rather have a cheese burger with just cheese and burger than "the works" and at subway I only ever have them add vinegar, no mayo or mustard (I do like mayo, but there are so many things I prefer to have them hold the mayo on)

i've recently decided that absurd requests for chicken or spagetti o's for breakfast are a-ok with me. sure it makes me gag to watch her eat it at 7am but at least she's eating without a fight.
i've also discoverd the magic of "on demand" (anyone with comcast cable knows what i mean). mr. rogers, telletubbies & barney round-the-clock! that sounds bad but i've got an art show coming up and about 16 more paintings to do with no free time to do em..

I definitely agree with that...as long as she's eating, and its not sugary crap....i am very happy....her latest is saying that she wants a "tweet"....I've had to move the jar...otherwise she climbs up onto the counter and alternates between just sitting nicely beside it and trying to pry it open...so now she sits outside the laundry room door (thats where the jar now resides) and cries for her "tweet."

What a funny thread!
And sure helped me feel better about my parenting. because no matter what I always tell my kids I love them and shower them with hugs and kisses and words of praise continually...suz they are so darn cute and sweeet I could just eat them with a spoon.
Well, last week I totally forgot my son's kindergarten homework was due, oops, just realised it now 4 days later.
My daughter went to daycare once wearing only a summer dress and no panties....in february..But I am usually gone befroe they get up so I will blame that one on my bf, who gets them ready most morning.
the hair thing.....bangs get cut when I can't see her eyes anymore, and some mornings her hair is pretty messsy, but, its always clean
Rooms are messy, but getting better....socks NEVER match around here.
get my son to help his little sister with stuff because i am too lazy or tired.

A big round of applause to all us moms out there, lets stop feeling so guilty, and know that in the long run our kids wont remeber theses things(we hope) and that they will remember just how much we made them feel safe and loved

Oh yeah? Well, Mr. Coconut has been away on yet another biz trip since 4.00 Wed. Morning and the tranny went out on the car so we have been stuck here for days. I am escaping on the net while my kids sit in the other room eating cinnamon rolls and watching Pooh.

LOL We all need a break sometimes. I don't think anyone's kids are going to die from this stuff. Although, the weekend before last I had my boyfriend's son for like a day and a half, and he did watch an awful lot of tv. But when I tok him with me to take out our laundry, we folded it on the lawn so that he could soak up soem sun and let Elmo drain from his head. The key for me is balance.

Stargirley-

Funny you should ask... my son LOVES ketchup, dressing, and mustard, but LOATHES whipped cream(????!!!!!!), jam/jelly, and honey. You should see the looks I get when I order 2 kid's hot chocs, one with, one without whipped cream. "What? No whipped cream? For a child? Are you sure?". Yes, I think it's weird. I'm a baker, for god's sake! When I make strawberry shortcake in the summer, he just has biscuits and berries. Whereas my daughter eats whipped cream with a berry garnish and no biscuit. Strange children. But, then again, strange mommy...

Kay

PS- my bf and I were arguing this morning (we're in the midst of a break-up/me moving out) and the kids demolished 10 out of 12 muffins I had made earlier! Jeez...