The Truth....

is so hard to come by sometimes.We all put a positive spin on ourselves and our lives and why not? Appreciating ourselves and dwelling on the beautiful brings enjoyment to our lives. But sometimes, its nice to acknowledge the chaos and swallow a healthy dose of realism. Especially when it comes to parenting which is often only considered through rose-coloured glasses.

When I came across this article, I instantly loved the honesty in these photos. Your usual family photos are beautiful of course, but there's something to be said for revealing the far more common moments when life is anything but perfect.

I feel I can relate to the above photo best but if I were to get one of these done, I would definitely be in a grocery store with the shopping cart toppled over onto my children...sigh. Here is the link to the article on Danielle Guenther's amazingly original work.

Escalator Nightmare

Weeks have passed and the bruise on my knee has yet to heal. At the end of what I thought was a successful escape from a store (meaning no shopping carts toppled over, no scenes or even a mini-meltdown), we had a run in with an escalator that would constitute any mother's nightmare. Well, maybe not exactly, neither of my children were trapped or eaten by the escalator but I can confess that these images did fuel my panic in that moment.

At the time, I was not expecting any problems as my capable six year-old has often taken an escalator without incident. I even remembered to remove the child sitting in the shopping cart before I shoved it onto its own escalator thingy, so I thought I was doing pretty good. Then, with my 4-year-old on my hip and my hand out to grab the handrail, I stepped onto the escalator and expected my 6-year-old coming behind me to do the same. But she balked. She stared at the moving stairs, immobilized by the apprehension of stepping onto a moving stairway. 

"MOMMMA!" she yelled.

Fueled by the thought that my child needed my protection from the scary child-trapping escalator, I turned and tried to run back up the escalator. Now, if perhaps you have never been so dumb as to try running up an escalator that is moving down, I can enlighten you: it is the most futile task known to humankind and will only make you feel like the dumbest human alive. How successful do you think I was while carrying a 30-pound child? And given my usual level of clumsiness? Not very: I fell. My child ended upon her side but thankfully did not get hurt. All the impact was absorbed. By my knee. Against the hard metal grating. Ouch.

Can I never go to a store again please? Maybe I can find a personal shopper who I could pay in kind. With children's artwork.