Broken Mom Challenge

Why can’t we just cut ourselves a break for once? I mean, most of us moms out there push ourselves, to the limit, daily for our families. It occurred to me again just this morning when I saw a mom at school who was having a rough time. She was broken. She had hit a wall and really just needed someone to tell her it was going to be okay.

This is a mom that, on any given day, you would think has it all together. At least on the outside. You know the one that might have this “mom thing” figured out. Three seemingly well behaved kids she shuttles from concert choir to basketball to play practice and everywhere in between. She does the Junior League thing and school PTA. Volunteers for post-game snacks and room mom duties. Not to mention, her birthday parties are all right out of a Pinterest board. She’s someone I really admire.

So to see her so emotionally shattered this morning made me stop dead in my tracks. Honestly, I got a little emotional too. Because I am THERE almost all the time. My head started spinning with what could have happened? Did someone pass away? Was there a terrible wreck? Did a tree fall on her house? What could have caused this emotional mom fissure to erupt?

Turns out it was a misunderstanding between her and her middle school daughter about a signed form or doughnuts or something. Trivial really. Trivial to you and me, but not to her. I didn’t get the complete story, and I didn’t need it. She was clearly distraught and I felt for her.

I tell you all of this because we never know what is going to make us snap and break down in a great big emotional mess. All I heard was her sobbing big ugly tears about carpools and practice schedules, worrying that she let down her kids because she had too much going on in the everyday. Mumbling something about 3 places at once, doughnuts, and how she double checked that in her phone, TWICE! Begging for this week to Just. Be. OVER!

Let me confess something, I AM HER almost all the time. Broken mom, I AM YOU. Right on that edge of a raw emotional eruption of sobbing and mumbling nonsensical statements. We never know what is going to push us over. Y’all, this stuff we do is hard. We plan, schedule, shuttle, clean, prepare, pack, and unpack all day long. We are forward thinking, multiple balls in the air at once, geniuses. We invest so much in our kids that we push ourselves over the edge physically and emotionally.

So here is a challenge I want to set upon your heart. Find a mom friend, and stop and ask her how she is. Maybe she is about to melt down and needs that lending ear. Find that mom who is struggling to get everyone in the door with 4 grocery bags and a tired preschooler, and offer her a hand. Send an email to another mom and offer to give her child a ride to practice if she ever needs it. Give that mom in the hallway who is broken and sobbing a hug and tell her you understand. Lift up a mom who needs a little extra encouragement.

I hope my friend reads this and knows that I AM HER and I am there for her if she ever needs me. We all are her some days.