Calm, Cool, and Collected

My friend, Caroline Nixon, has written this wonderful book entitled A Mom's Guide to Sanity. She is a perfectly centered and controlled mother of two. Actually, to quote the cover, she is "calm, cool, and collected." The minute I stepped foot into her perfectly organized home, an ideal model of feng shui at its finest, I knew this woman had it together. I do not. In fact, if I were to write a book about my motherhood experience so far, it would be entitled, The Real Reason Mothers Go Insane. I am the market for her book. I am the real reason books like hers even exist.
Even though her home may look spotless, Caroline understands the challenges of the stay-at-home mom. Along with the requisite qualities mothers must posses, like a sense of humor and a sea of patience, Caroline knows the real key to staying sane is acceptance. In her Afterward, "Letting Go," she challenges other moms "to be kind not only to themselves but to other moms as well." She goes on to point out, "It is difficult enough even dealing with a three year old having a full blown tantrum in the middle of God knows where" (That was me last week -in the busy parking lot of Harris Teeter holding a screaming preschooler with one arm, and with my free arm, pushing a rickety cart holding a mountain of groceries and my other unhappy baby). "But to look up only to see glaring eyes from other women, moms, is unhelpful and hurtful. Should we not support each other?"
Yes! Thank you, Caroline! I know I can count on you for a sympathetic nod when my preschooler has an accident and needs to be changed in the back of my SUV in front of all the world to see, or when my toddler screams murder and hits me in the face when I try to put him in his car seat. No, I am not abusing my child! How long we will be in this parking lot before everyone is safe and quiet in their seats, because God knows I can't multi-task when I am driving?! Why just last week, while hauling two tired and hungry boys around a new city in busy lunch-hour traffic, I rear-ended the businessman in front of me at a red light...
Thank God we are all fine. Thank God we are finally calm, cool, and collected (for now).