Ava does this thing where she asks me to follow her -- "follow ME *in a cute little high pitched tone* mama" as she grabs my pointer finger with her tiny little hand, leads me to the kitchen and over to the fridge, opens it up and then says, "Mama, up peez."

The Overwhelmed Mommy Blogger

It's like clockwork, at least 3-4 times a day this happens. I pick her up, we stare into the fridge and I ask her what she wants.

No response.

We stand there for about 34 seconds with her refusing to tell me what she wants and I ask her if she wants cheese or strawberries or a glass of milk and she's silent. Completely silent. And then because I know very well there is absolutely nothing she's really looking for, I get frustrated, oh-so-frustrated. Sometimes I raise my voice and sometimes I just put her down, close the fridge and leave the room. And this weekend, she did it again and again and again and at one point, I just put her down and yelled to my husband in the other room, "I can't do this anymore" as I stormed off into the living room, leaving her there in the kitchen crying for me to come back.

I just couldn't take it.

And as silly it sounds, this is one of the most frustrating things she does these days and I have literally no patience when it comes to standing there and getting no response from her. But despite my lack of patience with her and my easily-frustrated personality, I know I'm a great mom. I'm not perfect but I'm great and that's one thing I know for sure.

What makes a great mom?

I'll tell ya.

The Overwhelmed Mommy Blogger

1. Know your weaknesses.

I think it is extremely important to understand our weaknesses. We are on a journey of growth that will continue for the rest of our lives and without admitting to our faults, how can we possibly improve and grow? This is one reason why I often write about my weaknesses here on my mommy blog for all of you to see. It's my way of admitting my downfalls as a mom and committing myself to improving not only as a mom, but as a human being as well.

We all have room for improvement in our lives but in order to improve, we must first realize where we can improve and when we can do that and admit where we have gone wrong, that's just proof that we are great parents.

2. Know your strengths.

...and use them to your advantage. I think moms are too hard on themselves, myself included. And we all have strengths -- every single one of us. We put ourselves down, compare ourselves to other moms and think "wow, I'm doing a terrible job" and really, we just need to lift ourselves up more. It's one thing to compliment someone else but it's a whole other ball game to learn to compliment ourselves, to love ourselves, to appreciate our strengths and to applaud ourselves for all of the great things we do every single day.

So flaunt your strengths, use them daily, pat yourself on the back, write about an amazing parenting characteristic you have on your Facebook or Instagram and shout it out from the rooftop for the whole world to see. You're great -- We're all great and we all have strengths but if we don't give ourselves the chance to be appreciative of what we're great at, then we begin to forget and that's when our weaknesses begin to take over. Don't let them take over because you're an amazing, wonderful, fantastic, beautiful mama. And that sentence, right there, is the best parenting advice I could ever give.

You're a wonderful mama -- You just have to tell yourself that daily and actually believe it.