Your Thoughts on "Chasing Perfection"

I had a lot of great feedback from yesterday's post (Chasing Perfection), and since I don't have a comments option, I thought I'd reprint what I heard in this post. Here are some of the very insightful things other moms had to say about trying to measure up.
Brittany Lewis:"It makes me happy knowing I'm not the only mom that goes days without a shower!! I struggle with what's for dinner, wanting my house to be perfect and wanting to be a cool, hip mom all at the same time. I have got to learn to stop comparing myself and enjoy my crazy, busy life."
Heather Throneberry:"The problem with comparing ourselves to others is that we usually aren't seeing the full picture of others. I've seen so many women who seem "perfect" in one way or another...only to learn later that they are struggling with some difficult challenge of their own. We all have our own journeys...while we see some as being perfect, there may be others that see us as perfect too. All moms need to give ourselves a break and be a better support system for each other rather than comparing and competing."
Janet Sweeney:"I think that we all feel that way at times. Some times as a working mom I feel bad that I can't be the one to stay home every time one of the boys is sick. Today my father-in-law picked up Trenton then David took him to the doctor. I just pray for happiness. Then I realize how wonderful I do have it."
Leanne Black:"Thank you for this. Hopefully, other moms will realize that chasing perfection will make you miserable. I think you just allowed a few more dust bunnies to survive!!!!:)"
Amy Gaskin:"Hurray for dust bunnies! :) I personally find the look of dustbunnies and cobwebs and fingerprints endearing. It means I'm busy doing more important stuff...and I'm blessed that there are little people around to MAKE the finger prints!"
Arika Young:"I think each mommy has talents that their own children appreciate. What I’d like to convince myself of is that if my kids are loved, and KNOW that they are loved (by their parents AND God), if they are clean, fed and protected—I’ve succeeded that day. :) It’s kind-of sad that I had to have my 6 year old remind me one day that I was not a bad mom but I have to share this story because as I look back on it, it is hilarious to me. I am that mother. I’m the one who forgot (gasp) to send snacks to my kindergartner’s class when it was our turn to supply them for the whole class. Yes, that was me! I was absolutely horrified! What kind of mother was I? Once I (finally) realized that I had in fact not sent snacks that day I went to Lawson and we had a conversation about it. I told him that I was so sorry that I had forgotten to send snacks that day for everyone and that I felt awful about it. He put his hand on my shoulder in a very grown up way and patted me and said, “Don’t worry mom. You’re not a bad mom. At least you didn’t send anything with peanuts!”. (Side note--Carter Welch is in Lawson’s kindergarten class and with his deathly allergy to peanuts the teachers stress over and over not to send anything with peanuts.) So, my kindergartner, wise beyond his years taught me that day to look at the positives and what I had succeeded in rather than the ways I had failed. A profound way of thinking! To think it was better (at least in his perspective) that I sent nothing at all rather than endangering one of his classmates and friends. And just like that, it was all ok. Lawson still loved me and I couldn’t have loved him more for his forgiving and “glass half full” perspective. I wish I was more like that. :)"
Thanks everybody for your thoughts! Being a mom can be really hard, but it's much, much easier when we realize that we're not doing it alone. Mothers need one another. I'm so blessed to have your voices in my life.

JL Gerhardt