Tonight I lied. There I said it, and I already feel a little bit better admitting that and getting it off of my chest.

What exactly did I lie about and how did I lie is what you might be thinking right now.

Well I am here to fully admit to you how I lied in one simple photo of my child. CLICK TO TWEET

The photo at issue was a rare moment where my 5-year-old daughter fell asleep in my arms tonight, looking absolutely angelic I might add, while I was trying to eat my dinner. (See said simple photo below)

I nonchalantly posted this photo on social media, which my son beautifully captured, and less than an hour after posting it the photo reached more than 500 people on just my Facebook page alone. A few hours went by and as my roller coaster evening of parenting continued I became more and more bugged by the fact that so many people liked the photo, because I felt that I had lied. So let me share with you my thoughts on how I lied in one simple photo of my child.

Tonight my cherubic looking daughter in the photo was a miserable mess, even leading right up to this photo being taken. She was unhappy with what was being served for dinner, therefore she complained the entire time while eating it. After she finished eating she complained of an earache and then her cheek hurting terribly, so she cried and whined and eventually made her way right up onto my lap in the midst of me trying to quickly eat, where she fell asleep. My son thought she looked so peaceful and took a rare moment photo, which I decided to post and share. My daughter woke up not too long after the photo was taken and immediately started complaining again of not feeling well. I decided it was time to give her a bath and get her into bed because she looked like she just needed some rest (and at this point rest sounded fabulous for me as well). As I was bathing her she complained this time of her stomach hurting. Well, she was definitely not lying because seconds later I was holding a trash can in the bathtub for her while she proceeded to vomit. After she finished I spent the next 15 minutes cleaning out the trash can because my dear son (whose job it is to empty and line the trash cans with trash bags) failed to line this particular trash can (lucky me).

After I finally was successful in getting my daughter to sleep and started to clean up the remnants of my interesting evening, I started to get a little mad at myself for only showing and sharing what looked like, via a photo, a beautiful moment in my life. I felt that I owed it to my readers and myself to explain my thoughts and feelings on how I lied in one simple photo of my child. I wish that what I could have shared via my photo was the fact that parenting is not always one big beautiful journey. Parenting can often be made up of interesting, disheveled, frustrating and messy moments, which are often not depicted in photos that people choose to share.

I am sorry that tonight I lied, but I wanted to make sure that for every parent out there who goes through tough days and/or evenings with their kids, that I cleared up and confirmed that I am just like you, messy moments and all.