Listen up.

Please.

Gotta have that "please" 'cause we teach manners up in this home.

So, listen up, please, ladies.

Hear me loud and clear.

And, yes, I am talking to myself too.

I'll say it twice for those in the back.

YOU ARE GETTING IT RIGHT.

YOU ARE GETTING IT RIGHT.

I want --

scratch that.

I NEED you to know that you are getting right.

That you are loving those children in the manner that are meant to be loved.

That you were made for them; not her OR HER.

Those kids of yours, there were made to be loved how you love them, and NOT how she loves her kids.

Though SHE IS GETTING IT RIGHT, TOO when she loves her children in the manner they are meant to be loved.

You see, it is so incredibly easy for each of us to look to the left at drop-off or look to the right during the PTA meeting and think, convince ourselves and ultimately conclude that another woman is winning at motherhood while we rock the "loser" title.

But, that's freakin' false.

It's not reality.

It's living in this little place in our brain that is home to comparison, and it wants you to stay there cause it feeds off of your insecurity.

But, I want you to run away from comparison, and I want for you to deprive the hell out of it so that it cannot survive because do you know what?

You can't and won't survive your life as a mom -- which is now forever -- if you spend your days feeling less than and inadequate.

Can we all do better?

Absolutely.

Does that other mom maybe yell less than you?

Probably; unless she's me.

But, does she give awesome piggyback rides?

Nope.

Does that other mom have positive parenting techniques down to a science?

Sure seems like it.

But, does she know exactly how much peanut butter your child likes on their lunch sandwich?

Nope.

Does that other mom have an easier time being present for kids?

Yes, it really does seem as if she does.

But, does that mom know your kid's favorite song, meal or love language?

She does not.

Because she knows nothing about your kids and how to love them.

She knows hers and how to love her offspring, and that, nine times out of ten, will not look the same as how you care for yours.

Just because she's getting things right, doesn't mean that you're not or that you need to "fix yourself," though, if you really want to, do it for you and not for your kids because they don't think Mommy is broken.

And...NEWS FLASH...

YOU'RE NOT!

You are a woman making leaps and bounds every day in small ways, as is every parent.

So stop trying to be like every parent.

You're not them.

And, they're not you.

And, thank God for that because who your kids need is the mom they woke up to this morning.

Stop wishing you could be more like someone else when someone else is not at all who your kids want.