My House Will Never Be The Hang Out Place And I’m Totally Fine With It

We’ve kept a good friend’s kids for the last two days so they could get away because, well, have you ever met kids!? Overall, they are super well-behaved, awesome kiddos who are built-in BFFs for our own wild hobo children and we love them.

Last night I had dinner laid out to feed the masses. I made a grocery list while it cooked, as I knew the snack foods would likely take a hit with the sleepover.

But y’all. You. GUYS!!

This morning alone, they’ve eaten all the pancakes, waffles, fruit, pepperoni, cheese, and those monsters even ate my pumpkin bread!!

It’s like a real life episode of Survivor and I’m about to vote them off the island.

I just had to warm up a hot dog…for breakfast!

I mean, HOW do you moms of eleventy kids do it–keep them all fed, and clothed, and have a house that isn’t constantly resembling a ravaging dumpster fire!?

I grew up in a house where we rode bikes in the neighborhood and came home for family dinner when the streetlights turned on.

Aside from my annual birthday parties (which were epic), mine wasn’t the house where everyone gathered.

I had a friend for that.

I never fully understood why my mom wasn’t the one who had fresh baked cookies and thousands of pizza rolls at the ready for hoards of teenagers to pile into our living room and demolish over high school gossip and Dawson’s Creek.

But now I know.

I’m not that mom either. At the time, aged 17 me thought I would be. But now, my 37 year old self knows better.

Do I hope my kids still want to talk to me and ask advice? Sure.

But am I okay with them getting counsel from another parent who agreed to feed them and let me read a book in peace for the night? Yes ma’am.

And maybe that makes me a bad mom in your eyes. Cool it, Karen.

I’m a freaking AWESOME mom!

But I can’t be an everything mom.

I can fix whole foods and coupon for groceries, but I don’t want to make pin-perfect holiday themed desserts for my kid’s class.

I can research and chat about evolving strategies for mental health, but please don’t ask me to be room mom for kindergarten.

I can help a friend and am more than happy to host an epic slumber party every so often, but I can’t be the house where every kid comes all the time.

That’s just not me. And that’s honest.

I can’t be everything all the time. And THAT’S OKAY.

None of us can, friends.

So if your gift is hospitality and you get your energy from people, then host away! Invite people over and have all the desserts and flavored coffees this side of the Mississippi.

I will likely agree to come, then battle my social anxiety because I’d rather stay home, then go anyway because I promised.

I will always be here for my kids and my friends, but it’s also okay to know our strengths and to give grace to our weaknesses. And you should too.