Living in Bravery...Being the Mom

Today I am wearing white shorts. I must say as a mom of a toddler it is one of the bravest things you can do this side of some kind of war or trauma. It got me thinking. What other acts of bravery do average women face every day just because they woke up...and then so did the kids.

1) We brave judgement from the very beings we brought life to; from our choice of breakfast, to outfits, to way what movies we allow them to watch, our kids just love to point out our dorkiness.

2) We brave judgement from other moms. Yeah, I bottle feed...and?

3) We brave sacrifice. Those shoes might be on sale with only one pair left in your size, but the baby needs diapers. Dang it! Poop wins.

4) We brave stains on every single thing we own. Sometimes, we don't want to know what it is, how it got there, or who did it....just clean it up.

5) We brave an unknown future with the faith and optimism that it will get better. In the US, we're even more blessed because we don't live in a war zone. Praise be to God that things can get better if we ALL make the right choices.

6) We brave the possibility of losing our children to their own bad choices or the bad choices of others. We cannot save them from stupidity all the time.

I think the thing we brave most of all is the uncertainty that we are "doing it right." Am I doing everything I can to help my kid be a productive member of society? Am I making the right choices? If I screw up, can I redeem my mistake? Am I doing too much? Am I doing too little?

What the #$#%$#%^ am I doing anyway?

Hears to all those brave moms out there: wear those white shorts...those little handprints don't stay little for long...be brave