Last Minute Mother's Day Message from the Mediocre Moms

The ideal Mother's Day is usually filled with images of breakfast in bed, tiny homemade cards, and thoughtful flowers and dinner from Dad. But many moms actually dread Mother's Day for lots of reasons, including feeling like they don't measure up to the hype. This can be especially true for parent of kids with disabilities as they're in those early years and putting so much pressure on themselves with juggling therapy visits, doctor's appointments, play dates, and so much more.

So, we're here to tell you that you're in good company. None of us feel good enough, and some of us moms of older kids have just embraced that we're the "okayest" moms that we can be. We forget appointments sometimes, we feed our kids pizza and goldfish sometimes, we let our kids zone out in front of technology sometimes, and we even teach them sarcasm by being snarky sometimes.

Even though most of us don't measure up in lots of ways, our team at Down syndrome Pregnancy actually takes pride in the fact that if you google "mediocre mom" and "Down syndrome," our original "mediocre mom" article appears at the top of the search? We're proud of that distinction because so many times parents think they have to be perfect to raise a child with Down syndrome, but the truth is that you can just be a normal person doing your best ... and still have amazing kids who love you.

You can be lazy, grumpy, and mess up sometimes, but as long as you're still loving your kids and having fun with them most of the time, teaching them as best you can, and giving them opportunities to learn and grow, they will turn out just fine. Then, when you embarrass them someday in public for the thousandth time (see above), they might squirm and complain. But in quiet moments, those grown up kids will still text "I love you" and "Happy Mother's Day" and wrap their arms around you to tell you you're the best mom. And this won't be because you were perfect—because none of us are—it will be because you loved them as deeply as a human can love another person.

Happy Mother's Day!

You can read the original "Mediocre Moms" article or watch our recent webinar to learn more about how we've raised some pretty great kids as "mediocre moms."