the honest mom project

This weekend was bad.

Really really awful terrible bad.

It was one of Will's worst weekends--regressing to the terrible threes it seemed.

And although we road tripped north to spend some time with friends (and commiserate over children's behavior over glasses of wine and gourmet home cooked food), and we totally hyped up the sleepover we were having on social media, the truth is...

...our kids were terrible.

I blame Halloween, and the candy, and the lack of sleep, and the sugar crashes that followed each eaten lollipop.

I blame Halloween so much that I threw all of my kids' candy away. Two buckets worth are now resting peacefully in our trash can.

It was, in fact, so bad, that on Saturday, Will cried more than he didn't in his waking hours. There were "My tummy hurts" followed with "I want more candy" which led to "You guys are meanies" and sobs, and hysteria, and kicking, and spitting, and throwing things like socks, and shoes, and books. Even his Peter Pan costume sword was brandished as though he were going to attack me.

At lunch, he crumpled up a piece of pizza as though it were a piece of paper and threw it angrily across the kitchen.

Seriously. Insanity.

On the bright side, as I type this, we are both sipping some apple cider (his watered down, mine spiked with rum...wait, maybe it should be the other way around...wait, I kid, mine is not spiked with rum. It's three in the afternoon on a Sunday...I went with brandy, something stronger) after spending the better part of the last hour engaging in a full-on leaf war.

I even took a rock to the head.

I snapped some pretty fantastic photos of him in a rare joyous moment of the last 48 hours, and I wanted to 'gram them in all of their happiness.

               

Only it'd be a lie, right? A total lie of what this weekend was really like.

For this very reason, on January 1, 2014, I'm rolling out the honest mom project.

It isn't enough to want to see change; sometimes you have to actually be that change.

I have assembled a fantastic team of writers--and even better, down-to-earth, humble, brutally honest parents.

This team, we have lofty goals. We've been brainstorming, and meeting, and having conversations, and it has all led to this one very simple, but very special project.

To be honest. To stop the mom wars. To stop competing--with each other and through our kids. To laugh and cry and give each other virtual high fives and hugs and "I've been there, too"s and to start to build a community where we celebrate and embrace and support one another in this incredible and wild and crazy journey that isn't just about our kids but about us.

I can't wait for you to see what this holds, and for you to be a part of it.

So much more to come!!!

For now, we need you.

Yes, you.

Share this project with your friends--moms, dads, parents-to-be, grandparents, anyone who takes care of kids!

Email us at honestmomproject@gmail.com. And tell those you share it with to email us, too.

Introduce yourself to us. Say hello. Tell us what you want to see, need to hear. Maybe you want to be a part of this project? Let us know that, too.

As we introduce ourselves to the world on January 1, we will be pulling from the emails we receive and making a few parents verrrrrry very happy. :o)

Can't wait to meet you.