Behind every family holiday baking session is usually a destroyed kitchen, and every “perfect” family photo usually entails tears and almost always bribes. With every exciting search for the Elf on the Shelf usually comes a few excuses for why the Elf “got stuck” in the same hiding spot.
And when ecstatic children come running out Christmas morning to dollhouses, play kitchens, or train sets, it usually means the night before there was a living room scattered with little toy parts, confusing assembly instructions, and perhaps a few lingering profanities. Behind every magical holiday moment is likely an exhausted parent.
Real-life is messy and hardly ever goes according to plan. Parenting is hard, and even the most seemingly “put together” parent messes it up along the way. Luckily, the most memorable moments are all the flubs and flukes that happen along the way, and with time and a good sense of humor, we can even look back and laugh.