5 things I did in the last 5 days that made me a perfect mom

My husband was out of town the last 5 days. This meant that I lost 50% of my team for 5 days. For those of you who run a business with a team, imagine what would happen if half your team took 5 days off.
Yes I stay home with my kids all day anyways but evenings and weekends, my hubby swoops in like batman and does pretty much everything, including walking in the door with any groceries I didn’t feel like going out to get during the day as well as wine I might desperately need. Suddenly I was left to go grocery shopping with twins and buy my own wine. Thank god for grocery stores that sell alcohol. Other than being reminded by my too smart kids that “wine isn’t healthy” for my body because “it doesn’t grow on trees or in the ground”, I managed to get that grocery store trip done pretty smoothly.

It’s always been just me and batman with the boys so him being away for 5 whole days leaves a huge hole and this is actually the first time ever he’s been away from us this long.

But, if you know anything about me- you know I preach self care, letting go of what doesn’t matter, and not caring what anyone else thinks. When you do what serves you, and make adjustments according to your circumstances, I think you are truly a perfect mom. So here are 5 things I did while my husband was away that made my life much easier and very manageable while I was outnumbered by TWO 5 year old boys:

1)I ordered in. Almost Every night.

Yup I’m that mom that buys organic and cooks from scratch every night because that is important to me. But I’m flexible because I know that the health of my family doesn’t crumble if I allow my kids to eat out every now and then. It’s fun and awesome to not have to cook, and not have to wash dishes and that means more time to snuggle. #takeoutforthewin

2)I only bathed them once.

Yup. You heard me right. My kids only have a bath every other day anyways because there are lots of reasons why kids don’t need a bath every day-so technically I should have bathed them twice in 5 days but my hubby usually gives them their bath and it is EXHAUSTING bathing two kids at once so I said “f%ck it”. They were on spring break and it’s been pouring here so we spent a lot of time inside, at home by ourselves. No real germs or dirt to worry about. #bathrebel

3)I left dirty dishes in the sink. Every day.

Yes it feels good to have a clean kitchen and yes it’s much nicer to have a clean empty sink to wake up to every morning, but there is something so liberating about leaving everything until you have more energy. At the end of a normal day- if I don’t have the energy to tidy up, my batman husband will do it. When he was gone, I reminded myself that just because he’s not around, doesn’t mean I need to do it instead. By the end of the day, I’m tired. So waiting until the next morning when I’m fresh, is perfectly fine as long as I’m ok with walking into a mess. And I totally am. #skipthedishes

4)I let my kids watch lots of tv

Normally there’s pre school and playing outside-and they don’t get much tv-but it was spring break and it rained a lot so 5 days of extra screentime is ok with me. I’m all about balance and moderation. It gave me much needed down time for myself, and I secretly love kids shows because they make me giggle. #truth

5)I didn’t let them sleep with me

When my hubby is out of town, I almost always let my kids sleep with me because I just love the snuggles and they love it too. But I never have a great sleep and because their bedtime is way before mine, I don’t really get to enjoy the trashy reality tv that brings me joy. Plus, I like to relax and zone out with wine while I paint my nails. This time- I decided I need that time to completely disconnect and be selfish for the 3-4 hours I get from their bedtime to mine. 3-4hours x 5 days all to myself equals 15-20 hours of total me time. I stayed strong and guilt free as I told them they can’t sleep with me. I painted my nails, meditated, had baths, watched trashy tv to balance out the meditating, drank wine, read books, listened to podcasts and surfed the internet looking for ways to be a better mom. #winning

Moral of the story? Perfection is subjective and changes from day to day. It’s ok to relax on things you usually prioritize, baths (for kids) are overrated, and the dishes can wait. And if you ever find yourself saying you don’t have 5 minutes to yourself, refer to point number 5 where I talk about how I pushed aside the guilt, and managed to get almost 20 hours of me time. If you need any more inspiration on perfection in motherhood check out this episode of Modern Mommy Prepschool!

I’m a perfect mom and so are you.