Too Guilty to be Perfect

To the woman at the playground today. I’m sorry.

I know that it might have seemed like I was kind of staring at you and your daughter as you struggled with your young son in your ergo carrier, and she was struggling with putting on her shoes, and was scared of going back on her bike.

I know you felt like I was judging you, but I really wasn’t.

I know you were trying to get everything together because you were feeling embarrassed, but you really didn’t have to be.

I was only trying to see if there was any room for me to help. I was pondering if I would be interfering if I was to help your daughter tie her shoes... or help you do the strap on your ergo.

I was trying to let you know, we’ve all been there and that I know how frustrating it can be.

I was trying to send you love and hold space for you.

And yet, I could feel the guilt you felt and the sense of failing and wanting to flee the scene.

I wanted to tell you; We’ve all been there. You have nothing to flee from.

We’ve all had those moments. The “I’ve got to get home, my baby is getting hungry, I’ve got to make supper, and contact those people, and get to that meeting and oh, my god, why will she not get her shoes on...” moments.

We’ve all had to walk away to find peace.

So, the next time, you feel weird about being at the park and having one of those moments, don’t feel embarrassed or weird. Ask a mom for help, or trust that we’ve all been there. Know that it will get easier, and soon you’ll find the grove where you look at your older daughter and ask her to help with your straps and then you can help her with hers.

I wish I had been more articulate and said this to the young mom I saw at the park today. Having had the topic of guilt come up on the Spiritually Aware Parenting Facebook group this week and seeing how guilt taunts and haunts most of the members, it’s safe to say it torments all of us. Somewhere along the road of time we’ve learnt that we should be no less than perfect, and that with ever growing to-do lists, distractions, jobs, and studies about spending time and attention with our children, it never seems there’s enough time, let alone perfection.

So, we feel guilty for not being able to achieve the impossible.

Oh, and then we feel guilty for taking a few moments off from trying to be perfect.

We’ve got ourselves in quite the vibrational trap, don’t we?

And, as we find out more and more about what we “should” and what we “shouldn’t” be doing, and the more articles friends and family kindly tell us about to point out our misgivings the tighter we wind ourselves, and the more we lose sight of Who we Are... and the parent we really want to be.

We feel guilty if our house is messy, or if we haven’t spent time with our kids, guilty over being on too much screens, or not reading enough, guilty about cleaning too much and not playing enough, or playing too much and having dishes in the sink. We feel bad if we think our parents, neighbors, and strangers disapprove, but deep down know we need to approve of ourselves and so we feel bad because we don’t even know what we feel is the right course any more.

 Phew. With such a tug of war on our attention it’s no wonder we have problems focusing.

And so, it’s time to call a truce. It’s time to forgive ourselves, clear the space in our hearts and minds and truly decide what’s important to ourselves and our families... guilt free. Guilt free so we can feel what our Spirits, our Source and our sense of selves are trying to tell us what to do. Guilt free so we can feel our way to the right solutions.

And Guess what? We’re going to do it together. I’ve got a few things to sort out and then I’ve got some big announcements to be made. Here's the link to the first step!

I can tell you right now that May and June of 2016 are destined to be exciting months, liberating months, which will release you from guilt and into a space of intuitive clarity and authentic concepts of the real “shoulds” in your life. So you can enjoy your children’s play without feeling bad about dishes, and enjoy your thoughts when doing chores, without feeling guilty for something else. We’ll even clear guilt of taking some self care time, where you and yourself can spend some time together, without feeling like it’s too large of luxury.

Stay tuned. (I can’t express how excited I am!)