My Life in Six Words

A few weeks ago, Cindy at Go Workout Mom tagged me for the Six Word Memoir meme. I haven't done anything about it because, well, I had a hard time summing up my life in six words. But as a person who likes to excel, I've struggled with perfectionism throughout much of my life. Since I've become a mother, I've become more aware than ever of how important it is to let go of my need/desire to be perfect and be content with "good enough." So, here's my life in six words:

I'm not perfect, but good enough.
I remind myself of this constantly, as I find myself wanting to do everything exactly right for my boys. But I discovered early on that it's simply impossible - in large part because there is no "right" way of doing so many things as a parent. Is it better to continue trying to breastfeed and be miserable in the meantime, or should I just quit and be rid of the stress? Should I let my 12-month-old cry it out? Should I go back to work or become a stay at home parent?

There are just too many variables in parenting and the hardest part is, you'll never really know if you did the "right" thing. Maybe if you'd done something differently, it would have been better for your child. But those kinds of doubts will eat away at your spirit.

On the other hand, if you take a step back and simply admire and appreciate your children for who they are, it's easy to see that what you did was "good enough." And that's really all that matters.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on being a good enough parent, so please leave a comment!

As usual, I won't tag anyone, but if you'd like to participate, consider yourself tagged! And leave a link to your post in the comments so I can check it out :)

Eight Random Things About Me

I've been tagged! By Super Saver over at My Wealth Builder to share eight random things about me. But first, pursuant to the rules, I'm posting the rules:

• Each player must post these rules first.
• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your post , you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

And now, eight things about me:

1. I loved hair metal when I was growing up and watched Headbanger's Ball religiously for years.
2. I'm a total Star Wars geek. Episode Three is the last movie I saw in a theater.
3. I once worked for a major league baseball team and watched an entire eighteen inning game. But my favorite sports are actually football and tennis.
4. I had two miscarriages before Alex was born. It was one of the darkest periods of my life and I needed a counselor to help me go through the grieving process in order to come out alright. If you know someone who's suffered a loss, this site has a helpful list of what to say and what not to say to them.
5. My dream vacation is a cruise to Alaska.
6. I'm terrified of snakes.
7. I've started baking bread from scratch. (A post about that is in the works.)
8. I was dreading going back to work recently but the transition was actually pretty easy for me, completely unlike when I went back to work after Alex was born, even though I took exactly the same amount of time off. (A post about going back to work is also in the works.)

And now I'm going to break the last rule. I'm not going to tag anyone else but if you wish I had tagged you, consider yourself tagged and post a comment with a link to your post.