Mothering little ones is tough. My girls are five and two and the people who have encouraged me the most during these mothering years are actually those who are going through the exact same thing right now. Somehow, it’s much more helpful and heartening to hear, “I’m tired too,” rather than, “You’re going to miss these days!”

I’ve really appreciated it when other mothers of young children have opened up to me about their trials and allowed me to do the same. I have a fear, that perhaps others can relate to, of dragging other moms down or burdening them by bringing up issues that I struggle with in motherhood, thinking they are probably weary enough, without having to hear another mother’s grumbling. Yet, I’ve found that when that dialogue is opened up, a little commiseration can provide a great deal of relief. Simply to share affirmation that we are not alone is a great comfort.

My dear cousin Natasha gave birth to twin girls last year. She has a gift for encouragement and has a blog about mothering twins called Twinspirations. I asked her if I could share one of her posts that made me laugh and encouraged my heart, “Confessions of a Twin Mom.” I think any mother who has experienced the infant stage not so long ago can relate. I know I’ve been guilty of several of the things Natasha confesses to below!

…

I need to confess that there are things I do now as a mom that I would have been horrified at before having children. I’m sure that a lot of these things are something any tired, busy mom would do (I’m hoping!), and not just me! And yes, some days I gross myself out, and other days I’m just too tired to care.

Well, these are the worst things so far, and I’d love to hear if anyone can relate or has anything to add to the busy mom confessions!

So far I’ve:

Washed the same load of laundry five times, because I kept forgetting to switch it over.

Thrown out a dirty pan or two, because it had been left out on the counter too long and I didn’t feel like cleaning it.

Left pots and pans with food still in them out on the counter for weeks (two weeks is my max so far).

Piled dirty diapers beside the full diaper pail that I was too tired to empty.

Never sanitized soothers or bottles—it just takes too long.

Used the same bottles for a couple of days, cuz I didn’t feel like washing all the gross sour ones in the sink.

Thrown some paper towel on a pee pee accident on the rug and forgotten to wash it later.

Put the girls in dirty p.j.’s a few nights in a row, because nothing else was clean.

Eaten food off the floor that the girls threw overboard at mealtime ( for half a chicken finger it’s totally worth it!).

Left food on their highchair trays for days since the sink was too full of dirty dishes to wash them off (and I was too lazy to wipe them down).

Gone for days and days and days without showering or shaving my legs (shaving usually isn’t even on the priority list at all).

Gone to get-togethers serving food, even though I didn’t feel up to it, just because I was too tired to cook.

Licked clean the last spoon after using it and put it back in the drawer so my husband would have a “clean” spoon to use for breakfast (it’s not like we don’t kiss all the time, right?).

Well, that’s all for now—looking forward to hearing from you other moms!

…

Thank you for keeping it real, Natasha! The last two confessions are my favorite.

How appropriate that, in the middle of writing the introduction for this post, I had to pause to clean up a huge puddle of pee! Thank goodness for our wood floors!

To read more by Natasha, visit her site, here. If you have any confessions or words of commiseration to add, we’d love to hear below!