Cue Quarter Life Crisis. My days consist of getting up with the kids, getting them to school, cleaning the house, doing laundry, chanting the phrase "use your words" over and over with no results, breastfeeding, and so on. Lather, rinse, repeat. It's exhausting, boring, and not very fulfilling. I love my daughters more than words can express, and I know how lucky I am to be a mom, but I feel like I'm running in place. I work all day, every day, and I have little to show for my efforts. The house will never be clean enough, the kids will never be well-behaved enough, and I'll always feel guilty about something. If I'm cleaning, I feel like I should be playing with the girls. If I'm playing, I feel like I should be doing something productive. You get the idea.
I can't remember a time that I wasn't working towards a particular goal, be it trying to earn straight A's, get into college, or finish a degree or certification. At the moment, I'm in limbo. My research study gig is up, and I'm still waiting to hear whether or not I've been accepted into the 2013 GEPN program at Yale. Aside from the pressure I put on myself to always be "achieving," social media adds to the inadequacy that I (and many other moms) feel on a daily basis. It's no longer enough to "just be a mom." You also have to have the perfect house, cook Pinterest dinners, do fun crafts with the kids, have a successful career...and look good doing it.
I recognize that this is impossible, and yet, I struggle with the fact that I just don't measure up. Enter "Raising Hell." Here, I will write honestly about my joys, accomplishments, frustrations, and failures. I will share funny stories about my kids (and maybe my husband), and I will get through this Quarter Life Crisis, dammit!
You are one of the most amazing, talented, inspiring, driven, women that I have ever met. <3 Are surely going to raise some hell!
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