The 10am Mommy Margarita Club - Kids are like puzzles - how challenging is yours?

So, you’re probably wondering about the title The 10am Mommy Margarita Club.  Your thoughts probably stray in a couple different directions… if you are a mom you are probably thinking that I must be joking (of course, maybe not).  If you are not a mom, then you are probably thinking that I must be a horrible person.  Both points of view have some truth to them, but I am neither joking nor am I a horrible person.  I am just a mom who has tried her hardest to do her best… and to her surprise, unlike before she became a mom, her best isn’t usually even close to being good enough. 
First of all, I will say that I’ve never actually had a margarita at 10am!  At 10 am I was dropping my child off at Preschool.   As for the margarita part of the title… well, we all know that in order to make a good margarita you need tequila, triple sec, lime, ice, a shaker and salt… seriously, who has time to put together that many ingredients!!  Just getting the ice out of the freezer takes too much time all on its own!  It’s much too complicated.  So, you may ask if there is any truth to the title at all… the answer would be YES!  There was a day every once in a while when I’d have a glass of wine at 11am (don’t judge me…. Karma is an excellent teacher 😊)… but the 11am Mommy Wine Club just didn’t have the same ring.
It was at Preschool drop-off that the idea of a 10am Mommy Margarita Club began.  That’s when I finally, after years of being home with my children, was able to meet other moms who felt as stressed and ineffective as I did.  That’s where the fictitious Mommy Margarita Club began! I will share some thoughts on parenthood and how I see the world differently since having kids. 

​What Size Puzzle is Your Child?
So, I was having a conversation with a friend about how we saw parenthood before we had our kids. It's completely different than we thought, to say the very least!  What I've decided is that kids are like puzzles!  They have varying degrees of difficulty.  Some kids are those cute puzzles with about 15-20 large pieces. They are extremely easy to solve and there is no frustration involved.  Then there are those kids that are like puzzles that have 250 medium size pieces and the picture has lots of contrast so it's easy to put the pieces together.  It might take some time, but the level of frustration is still on the lower end of the spectrum.  
When we move up to the 1000 piece puzzles type of kid, things start getting interesting.  The challenge begins!  It may take some time to find a matching piece. These puzzles are not easy, but with patience they are doable.  
Of course, then there are those kids whose difficulty level is close to a 5000 piece puzzle... and maybe it's not only 5000 pieces, but this entire puzzle might be all ONE COLOR!!!  You know the ones... super small pieces with no way to easily figure them out with a frustration level that is sky high... almost impossible to figure out (some might say).  These puzzles are only for the most tenacious of us! 
So, if you find that your kid is a 5000 piece puzzle sometimes (or all the time) be kind to yourself!  With a puzzle as complicated as this type can be, you have to know that there are small victories in finding even one piece that matches with another.  It may not look like much in the big 'puzzle' picture... but every piece counts!  Every piece is one step closer to putting it all together so it's complete!
Make sure that when you are judging your parenting skills, and perhaps comparing yourself to other moms or dads (you know you do!), take a peek at the puzzle on which you are working so you can give yourself the credit you deserve based on the degree of difficulty.  You may very well be a Puzzle Master!

One piece at a time,
​Cindy​

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