Sometimes, you collapse on the living room floor, put your head down, and cannot move….so you just stay there, breathing in the carpet fibers for a half hour, while your husband takes the baby to play in another room. Sometimes, you let your 9-month-old baby watch fifteen minutes of Strawberry Shortcake, though you vowed not to let her ever watch television until she was three. Sometimes, you feed your baby food from a jar or pouch though you’ve committed yourself to cooking all of her meals from scratch. Sometimes, your plates from last night’s dinner are still sitting on the table, covered in food, at noon the next day. Sometimes, you are still folding last week’s laundry while doing this week’s laundry. Sometimes, it takes you three weeks to return a friend’s email, which you’ve only accomplished by writing one paragraph at a time and saving them all in a file until it’s complete. Sometimes, it takes you a full year to finish reading a book. Sometimes, you fight with your husband when you really meant to say, “I miss you….I miss us.”

Because, you are human. Because, you are a mama. Because, you aren’t capable of perfection, and you cannot do it all.

And that’s okay.