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Challenge: Parent Fails

Screw the fails. It's all about the bounce-back.

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Parent fails. We've all got 'em. Nevermind the fabulous and kinda-pretentious title of my personal blog, I've got a whole section devoted to FAILS. Why? Because they're gonna happen no matter what. So why not share. (Which I guess explains why I smashed all my best fails into a book for the sake of explaining first-time moms how to bounce back, mentally and emotionally, in those early parenthood days...)

Why not share how I forgot to get candles for my 4 year old's recent birthday and just used a random question-mark I had in the back of my cupboard for my mother in law's birthday dinner a few years ago?

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Why not share that time I loaded two kids under the age of 2 years old into a shopping cart -- right around dinnertime, when everyone's hungry -- filled it up to Kingdom Come with my screaming and crying (hungry) tots, got to the register and (lol!) discovered I'd left my wallet on my kitchen counter at home and had NO MONEY to pay for any of the hundreds of items I'd just been rung up for? I can't make this stuff up.

Why not share how one of my toddlers once pointed at an overweight person sitting beside us and shouted "Mommy, she's big!" for everyone in the restaurant to hear. I pretty much cried right there.

Why not share the real reason why (I believe) my then-2 year old went looney tunes hysterical with Santa Claus back in 2012? Watch for yourself... I can't bear to explain this mess of a mommy moment one more time:

And let's not mention that time I couldn't remember if I showered or not in a room with A-list celebrities. (Okay, that's happened more than once.)

I could go on. But I won't. Because we've all been there, we've all done all sorts of shamefully random things and some of us are still doing them here and there and really can't keep an accurate count of all the fails anymore. Ah, the fails.

BUT THEY'RE NOT FAILS. (Nevermind what that perky category on my blog says, they're NOT fails.)

They're just LIFE.

Mishaps. Mistakes. Funny circumstances. Oopsie-Daisies (in the words of my 5 year old). Some of them caused by misunderstandings, moving too fast, serious sleep deprivation and/or lack of enough coffee. (Or feeling like we're drunk, but I digress.)

See, even though I like to joke about the fails... I secretly love them. Why? Fails require us figure things out, to be resilient. Fails require us to laugh, even if we're stressed and exhausted. Fails require us to make a choice to wake up fresh the next morning after a horribly bad or embarrassing day. Fails inspire us to act like fighters and get it together -- even if we feel like we're throwing spaghetti at the wall and nothing's sticking. Fails keep us humble and challenged to become better in the long run -- in the name of raising good people and being capable parents.

Fails require us to bounce back... no matter what stage of parenting we might be in. Because the more we bounce, and the more skilled we get at bouncing back when things don't go our way, the better off our kids will be...

Here's to those days of putting a size '6 months' pantsuit on a 2 year old.

Images/video courtesy of TheFABMom.com

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Jill Simonian is a TV/digital Parenting Lifestyle Personality and mom of two young daughters. Her blog, TheFABMom.com, keeps life focused after babies (f-a-b). Jill's debut book, The FAB Mom's Guide: How to Get Over the Bump & Bounce Back Fast After Baby (Skyhorse) is a frank, motivating and resilience-building read -- with celebrity stories and expert tips sprinkled between -- to boost any first-time mom's mind, body and spirit.

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