Once Upon a Time and Happily Ever After

Once upon a time I believed in complete happiness and happily ever after. Then I grew up. I learned that relationships take a lot, a lot of work and life is not always as simple as we think it will be.

Image: Snow White by Disney

I also learned that marriages sometimes happen because people were meant to be. I really feel that way about these two children who I call mine.

To say I'm a good mom would be a flat out lie. I consider myself a terrible mom. I know that as compared to a crack addict who neglects her children I am a stellar mom, but I'm not the mom I wish I was. I can never live up to my own expectations in that department. I struggle daily with my own impatience and my temper. I struggle with my tardiness and getting my kids to school on time.

I am not a stay at home mom or even a PTA mom. I'm the mom who forgets to read the flyers sent home or the spelling word schedule and who missed the note that says that the spelling test will be on Thursday because Friday is a holiday. Yeah teachers, I'm that mom you hate.

Yet, every day I get up and I try. I try to be the mom who gets her kids to school on time. I try to keep in regular contact with the teachers, although I'm yet to log on to that system that lets me view my kids' grades online. I try not to lose my temper with my son when he won't get dressed and he makes us fall behind. I try to remember to say positive things to my kids before they go off to school and I try to remember to look in their backpacks at night.

I'm reminded of this as my husband and I help my son work on his project on the owlfly. We want for him to have a great project that he's proud of in hopes that we can motivate him to do more on his own as he gets older. We want to show him that we care about him and his education.

Thank goodness our daughter is self-motivated, but even she needs reminders to work hard sometimes.

I have so many other things that I need to worry about with them too. Their education is just part of a lot more. I ask myself if I can be enough mama for them when it matters most. Most of all, I want for them to believe in complete happiness and happily ever after too.