As I prepared for my son’s two year old birthday last week, I knew I wanted to bring cupcakes to his daycare Friday afternoon. As the days slipped by I realized I would have to settle for store bought cupcakes. By Friday morning, I was rathered dissappointed in myself that I still didn’t have cupcakes for the party. What kind of mom was I?
Long story short, I stopped at serveral stores before going to daycare and the closest things I could find were Hostess donnettes (ugh, they weren’t even officially titled donuts). With 10 minutes until the party, I swallowed my pride and bought 3 bags of donnettes (yes, they were right next to the twinkies). This is a far cry from the organic Whole Foods cupcakes had imagined I would be bringing to the my son’s party.
In those moments at the drug store (did I mention I bought them at a drug store) I felt so much guilt of not being the perfect mommy. How could I be so irresponsible to not be able to pull off cupcakes for my own child’s birthday? I was so embarrassed to bring in 3 bags of proccessed donuts, that I also bought a yellow gift bag so I could at least walk into daycare thinking I looked put together. Bree Van de Kamp would have been appauled.
Everything changed, however, the moment I walked into daycare. My son had a huge smile on his face and thought I was mom-of-the-year just for being there. When he saw the donettes, he started chanting “Yeah! Cupcakes!”. He didn’t even notice they were drug store bought donettes.
I realized it wasn’t about the cupcakes, or the donettes, or how I packaged the celebration….it was about the celebration itself. Thank goodness I was able to release my unrealistic expectations and leave my silly pride at the door. When I was at the party, I was in the moment full of love and joy.
Creating a balance sometimes means letting go of useless expectations and focusing on what matters most.
Below is a video of the evolution of the birthday donette. Even without cupcakes, the party was fabulous!
Click here if you can’t see the video.
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Thanks for participating in this week’s Carnival of Family Life by contributing this post! The Carnival is at ice cream is not for breakfast this week and will be live on Monday, May 19, 2008, so drop by and check out some of the other excellent articles included in this edition!
Awww, how cute! Kids really don’t even care about that stuff, which just melts any mom’s heart.
This article has been included in the latest edition of MOM’S BLOGGING CARNIVAL.
Great story! I am hosting the mom’s blogging carnival. Your blog looks interesting, creating a balance in life is definitely a goal I have on a daily basis
@All – Thanks for the great feedback. This was the first time I incorporated my flip video technology onto CreateaBalance.com. It was fun being able to show everyone my experience instead of only writing about my birthday extravaganza.
What a great encounter! Not only did you rise to the occasion by bringing something, but also for sharing it with us. I wanted to laugh and cry and say, I’ve been there, too. Kudos! G.
Graces last blog post..What you don’t know about charities could cost you money