Are You a \"Bad Pancake\"? Letting Go of Perfection in Motherhood

There's a theory that you always "kind of mess up the first one".

Like the first pancake you try to make, that first baby...

They're the test run. In this episode of Your Mom Enough, we’re embracing our inner "bad pancake" and tackling the immense pressure to be perfect as mothers.

For many of us, motherhood throws us back into a perfectionist mindset we thought we had handled. 

Suddenly, we’re weighing every decision, from sleep training to starting solids, terrified we’re making the wrong choice. 

Shawna shares her journey from struggling with breastfeeding to attempting to "redeem" herself with perfectly homemade baby food only to be told she was doing that wrong, too.

Key topics from our conversation:

• The External Pressure Cooker: We discuss how today's moms face criticism from all angles not just from relatives or people in the grocery store, but from Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook mom groups.

• More Than a Mom: We feel a tinge of guilt saying it, but our identity is not solely "mom". We have other interests and other tabs open in our brains, and that's okay.

• Maternal Anxiety is Real: Did you suddenly start imagining terrifying scenarios after your baby was born? We confess our own experiences with these intrusive thoughts and the compassion it gave us for our own mothers.

• Grace Over Guilt: The goal isn't perfection. It's turning the guilt into grace and focusing on being a present, loving parent not one who has everything color-coordinated and pureed to perfection.

Join Our Community of Imperfect Moms

We are two first-time moms (in our 40’s) navigating this journey, and newsflash we don't have all the answers. We’re in it with you!

If our conversation resonated with you, we’d love for you to continue it with us in our free, private Facebook group.  It’s a space where there’s no pressure to be anything but yourself.