It happens quite often, especially when cooking, that I try so hard to do exactly what I am supposed to in order to create something amazing. For example, when cooking I try to follow the recipe exactly. Most often it turns out okay, rarely “perfect” by my standards, but good. Sometimes it’s a disaster!
Such is the case with parenting. Except instead of recipes we are confronted with a million different “experts” telling us what combination of love and discipline we need to enact in order to raise the “perfect” child.
“Perfection. And even if it isn’t, never apologize. No excuses. No explanations.”
The above quote is from the movie Julie and Julia about the blogger who chronicled her journey through all of the recipes from Julia Child’s The Joy Of Cooking. She was working on molding the crust of a dessert and it wasn’t agreeing with her. I was struck by the wonderfulness of this statement. I constantly feel like I am doing something wrong, or completely messing up my children by some decision I’ve made about a minute detail of their childhood.
I have to take a step back and realize that I can only achieve my own version of perfection. I can only be the best me that I can be.
So I make this promise to my children.
I realize it will be virtually impossible to do all three at the same time, but we should all strive for perfection right? As long as we know that we are doing our best and never apologize, make no excuses.
This a-ha moment was a result of three separate things. A perfect storm so to speak. First, I recently watched the movie Julie and Julia and immediately wrote the quote into a draft posting, knowing that some day it would evolve into more. Second, I was asked to participate in a campaign with Johnson’s Baby regarding their Safety Promise. They asked us to watch this video and share our own promises we have made to our children or any new promises that may have been inspired by the video. Third, I have started taking 5-10 minutes every day to read a devotional. Today’s devotional involved a mother who felt upstaged by a neighbor who was up at 6am making pancakes. 🙂 It ended by saying be the very best you, you can be.
Wow.
Isn’t it amazing how things can align in our lives to open our eyes and our hearts.
This post is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. They want to share their Safety Promise with you. They have recently reformulated their baby wash, shampoo and lotion products to remove ingredients that moms and dads have expressed concern over. What a wonderful commitment to the safety of our children.
Watch the video below and see how you too can be inspired by their commitment to you.