You can’t do this alone. You just can’t. This mothering
thing isn’t meant to be done alone. It doesn’t make you less of a mom by asking
for help, and it doesn’t make you better of a mom for doing it alone. The best
thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help. And an even better thing you
can do for yourself is to take a break.

When Jase was born there was some crazy thought in my mind
that said, “Hey you! You’re not a great mom (or a great wife) until you do it
all and take care of it all.” Literally the moment I stepped in the door of our
home with our new little bundle I felt like it was me. Just me, on my own,
super mom here I come! But then I was doubled over in pain from having a
c-section that I just couldn’t do everything. I couldn’t bend down and pick my
child up out of his pack and play. I couldn’t pull myself out of bed easily
when he was crying at night. I couldn’t get myself out of the rocking chair
while holding the baby because I needed my hands to support me. So I cried my
eyes out because I was failing at this motherhood thing and it had just
started. I was failing as a wife and mother because I couldn’t do everything a
mother was supposed to do and I needed help from my husband. I needed help from
other people. For some reason, to me, this meant I had failed.

Isn’t it funny how we moms feel defeated right from the
start? If we try to do this alone we are going to feel defeated because we aren’t
meant to do this alone. Why would we even begin to think one of the biggest “jobs”
we will ever have is meant to be done alone? God didn’t create us to do this
alone. We need the help of those around us. We need our spouses and family to
lean on as we bring up children in this world. Each of us plays a vital role in
bringing up kids; a place and influence that only we can have in that child’s
life. We don’t want to miss out on the importance of influence in our child’s
life, we can’t do it alone.

It’s in the moments that we recognize our need for help that
I think we reach one of the better places in our mothering. The moment we realize
we can’t do it alone is the moment we grow just that much stronger. We grow
stronger because instead of it becoming just me, it becomes us. It becomes a
team working together to influence the lives of our children for the best. It’s
when we recognize that we can’t do it alone that we tap into greater potential
as a mother.

And this my friends is just the beginning.