When it comes to #momfails, I consider myself an expert. I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I don’t feel like some kind of failure. I only want the best for my two girls and would do anything for them. However, I am human and make many parenting mistakes. I have a mom fail on a daily basis. I’m learning as I go!
Vaccinating my kids is important to me. It’s one thing I can feel good about doing despite my many flaws. I know I’m taking care of one of the things that matters the most – my kids’ health. #Parentfails are a part of life, #butIvaccinate so at least there is that!
As I was brainstorming for this post I realized that I had no shortage of material. In fact, I could sit here all day and write about this topic! I won’t keep you here long, I promise, but I wanted to share a few of the ways I’ve felt like a complete failure as a mom both recently and in the past. Maybe you can relate to some of these embarrassing moments, too?
Mom Fail Confessions
#MomFail #1: I serve frozen food to my kids multiple times during the week. I’d love to say I cook all their meals from scratch, but that would be a complete lie. It’s gotten so bad that my youngest daughter is getting sick of pizza.
#MomFail #2: My youngest daughter’s school lunch becomes more pitiful as the week draws to a close. It starts out great with food from all four food groups. However, the supply dwindles to baggies of cheese crackers, fruit chews and a cheese sandwiches as I run out of groceries.
#MomFail #3: This week I almost sent my daughter to school with no socks. She was putting her winter boots on and getting ready to catch the bus when I saw her bare feet. She probably sees me never wearing socks in the winter and thought it was ok.
#MomFail #4: I forgot to pay for my daughter’s school dance. I meant to do it online and when I went to pay the morning of the dance, they had removed the option to pay on their website. She was so upset with me.
#MomFail #5: Forgetfulness and me go hand in hand. I forgot to buy a birthday present for a party my daughter was attending. I taught her the art of re-gifting.
#MomFail #6: I used to turn on cartoons when the kids were little so I could sit back and relax…sometimes for hours.
#MomFail #7: The Tooth Fairy showing up at our house is hit or miss. My daughter would put her tooth under her pillow and of course, I’d forget to exchange it for money. It wasn’t just a one-time thing either!
#MomFail #8: We ran out of milk and I served my daughter’s cereal with coffee cream. She noticed and was disgusted with me.
#MomFail #9: I suck at lacing up hockey skates and have to ask another parent or the coach to lace up my daughter’s skates. My daughter says I don’t pull them tight enough even though I am grimacing in pain pulling as tight as I can.
I’m not proud of these #parentfails. However, I do try my best and do have some parenting wins, too. I will do everything I can to make sure both kids are healthy and protected. I started vaccinating them when they were both babies and followed the recommended vaccination schedule as set out by the province. Children in Ontario who attend public school must be vaccinated for certain diseases (unless there is a valid exemption). Our local Public Health Unit recently came to my youngest daughter’s school to provide vaccinations to kids in grade 7.
Want more info about vaccines? Check out ontario.ca/vaccines for an easy-to-use immunization scheduler to help you keep track of your child’s vaccination appointments.
If you can relate to some of my parenting fails with a few of your own, I encourage you to share your story on social media using #butIvaccinate and join the conversation!
Can you relate to any of my #parentfails? I’d love to hear about your own!
Disclosure: This post was developed in association with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, as part of the #butIvaccinate campaign, however all thoughts and opinions are honest and my own. More information about vaccinations can be found at ontario.ca/vaccines.
Marilyn Legault says
Your mom failures have happened to all of us. No worries, the kids do survive.
Sandy King says
I agree with the above comments. Your “fails” are something we all experience as mothers – particularly if you are blessed with more than 1 child. I’m sure your love for your girls more than balances it out, Stacie.
I have to admit, #6 “Watching cartoons” makes me feel a tad guilty. I often let my 3-year old watch youtube on the tablet whilst I tend to my 1-year-old.
Reducing screen time is definitely top of my agenda for this year!
Brittany says
Thank you for writing about this. There’s so much misinformation out there with people who blame vaccines for everything horrible that happens to their children, and not enough of people who actually advocate for vaccines. And as a mom, I love the hashtag.
Smart Dad says
Shaming people for making an educated decision to not vaccinate is not the way to encourage vaccination. It’s extremely immature, unprofessional and disrespectful. Just because you’re kids haven’t been hurt by them, it doesn’t mean that they’re safe for everyone and why is it okay that a mother plays a sort of ‘Russian Roulette” with every vaccination?
Vaccines have a very ugly history and the science behind them being “safe” is flawed. For anyone who thinks they are soooooo educated on the subject, do you even know how polio is contracted? I mean if you fear it so much, you should probably know that it’s only prevalent in countries with poor sanitation and why is that? Because it’s ONLY contracted through direct contact of faeces of an infected person. Did you know that recently a bigger issue than wild polio virus is vaccine derived polio? Look it up! A dad in New York successfully sued a vaccine manufacturer after he caught polio and became paralysed for life. How you ask? Well some vaccine shed meaning the recently vaccinated can spread the illness they were vaccinated against (MMR vaccine is one, Live Oral Polio vaccine is another). In this case, this man’s infant daughter was vaccinated for polio, she shed it through her faeces and he came in contact with it by changing her diaper… Again, look it up! And oh, don’t act like the CDC cover ups and manipulation of data didn’t happen. It wasn’t that long ago that the polio vaccine was discontinued because it was CAUSING polio but yeah let’s trust these companies.
Mainstream studies previously found that those recently vaccinated for Measles, Mumps and Rubella can actually shed those viruses after vaccination to the unvaccinated and even the vaccinated population but let’s ignore that. Thousands are filing lawsuits after shingles vaccines have been causing shingles and dozens of other side effects including death but let’s ignore that. Chicken pox and measles in the 70’s and 80’s were both viewed almost no different than the common cold today but all of a sudden with the newer generation of parents, these illnesses are like the boogie monsters waiting to snatch our kids.
Hepatitis is pretty much only contracted through promiscuous activities or if a parent of the child being born has it but let’s all vaccinated infants against it because you never know how soon they might start have sex and using heroin needles.
Pertussis/whooping cough… another vaccine starting to come out as a major cause of whooping cough. Look it up and if the news source seems sketchy, look at the bottom of most posts where they reference the actual credible source they got the information from.
CDC and WHO label vaccine derived polio as a concern and they’re answer to solving it?… more vaccinations?
My son almost died due to a routine vaccine so I find the #ButIVaccinate ‘movement’ very shameful. It completely neglects those who were hurt by vaccines, parents who may have actually lost children due to vaccines… Shame on these people posting #ButIVaccinate… Shame
Smart Dad says
aaaaand I’m sure through moderation, you will not share my post 🙂