REAL Moms ROCK! UPDATED

Updated: I'm one of the 10 finalists for the Not Mom of the Year Contest. Could you pretty please vote for me? Go here to vote.

Last Monday, I joined in with The Mommyologist and Life Without Pink for their Not Mom of the Year Contest.  In doing so, I wasn't saying Oh, look at me, I'm the worst mom in the world and I'm proud of it!  My point, that soooo many of you agreed with I totally love you, was that we all probably have this ideal in our heads of what "Mom of the Year" looks like. And none of us can really live up to that. And so, we are Not Moms of the Year.  We're REAL moms.






Thank you for making this my most-commented on ever post here(you know, with the exception of some giveaway posts and the day that I was featured on SITS...but the most commented on "regular" post). I'm going to join in with Kerri's Klutter for her Comment Love Letters this week(even though her linky doesn't go up until Tuesday) so that I can share bits and pieces of some of the comments that the post received- because I think they can make us all feel better about not being able to live up to some impossible standard of Mom of the Year.

If you missed my Not Mom of the year post, you can check it out HERE.  

Dear Shell, sweetheart, you come sit right over here by me. I'm quite possibly the other bookend to your not mom of the year! This makes me feel like I'm really more in the "normal" category than I thought. I love when bloggers write about the real side of motherhood.


Don't tell anyone, but my kids had ice cream for dinner last night, I was too tired. Shell, we sound so much alike! Can you imagine if we lived near each other? Our naked kids could play in the mud together and popsicles for snacks (and maybe a meal or two). I think we could be very good friends. And our kids could run around the house near naked together... Love the very thought! You know what? The two of us are obviously identical souls separated at birth. I kept wondering how you'd been spying on me while describing your own "Not Mom of the Year" antics.


And your description of Mom of the Year? Total motherbitch. I wouldn't be able to put up with her for one second!! You know the Mother of the Year doesn't exist right? She's just a better liar. eff mom of the year! Mom of the Year? Isn't that a little statue made out of some non-recycleable material and only shows up in the stores around April just in time for Mother's Day? If your description of Mom of the Year exists, I guarantee I wouldn't like her!


Mom of the year also has an extra 30 minutes a day because she doesn't pee, poop or sweat. Mom of the Year does not take into account the fact that kids are a major challenge. Mom of the year only exists where Kid of the Year does... in our imagination! LOL Lol, those kids of the "Mom of the Year?...... yeah, they grow up to be serial killers....


I think most mom's of the year are Stepford Wives incognito! that mom of the year sounds boring and needs a romp in thesack. I think mom of the year has about 2 weeks left before she goes crazy. It would be hard being so perfect all the time. Mommy of the year sounds like one hellatiously exhausted lady. If she does exist, she deserves a nap. That mom of the year? I'd like to punch her in the face.


It would such a drag to be perfect everyday. And then what would you blog about and who would want to be your friend?? Ive never met a mom of the year...I think its a myth...like bigfoot If there is anyone person that does all of those things, well she is probably lying. Or needs to be shot so the rest of us don't look bad. Cause that other person isn't real and if she is I'm gonna kick her a$$!!!


If Mom of the Year really exists, she's probably got her own secrets anyway. A closet alcoholic or something. No Mom is that perfect. i'm a little frightened of your mom of the year. she sounds.. repressed. like one day, she's going to be in the middle of making brownies and there's going to be this little snapping sound and her eyes are going to get all cold and soulless. and before you know it, she's stolen some jacked-up truck and drives it through the front wall of the department store.


I think we all do the best we can and at the end of the day, if the kids are fed, mostly clean and clothed and know that they are loved, then we all get to be "mom of the year"! I'm a good mom but far from perfect. The kids are happy though and that is what really matters. The cool thing about Mom of the year, I think the kids get to nominate and it sounds like you are doing a fabulous job!!


I say as long as people do good by their children, love them, teach them good things, take care of them ect, they are wonderful. Keep up the great work. Your kids are learning that they are wonderful the way they are. They are loved and valued more than activities. They are learning to be together as a family unit.


You are the perfect mom for your boys and that's all that matters! REAL moms are the best moms! :) In my view we are ALL Moms of the year, because we are real, we love our children and they love us just the way we are. And, then like you said, - you just love them - and that's when you really become mom of the year - when you love them when they are so stinkin' unlovable! And still encourage them!


Love,
The most fabulous readers in the blogosphere

P.S. Thank God for an admitted occasional spanker! No one ever talks about it, but sometimes, you just gotta whack!

A Day Early and a Dollar for Monkey

Last week, I felt like I was a day late and a dollar short. So, I'm trying to start over this week. And actually doing a Tuesday meme on Monday. But, I have a point to doing it that way. Hang on.


Kerri, at Kerri's Klutter does these really cute comment love letters, where she copies and pastes some of the comments she received the previous week and turns them into a letter. I always thought this was a cute idea, but I'm lazy, this is my first time participating.


You know about Mission Monkey, right? Well, Kerri is going to donate $1 to Mission Monkey for every comment love letter that is linked up in the month of May. So, really, I'm posting this a day early for those of you who are missing out and haven't met Kerri yet- then you can participate tomorrow! Don't forget that you can make a donation to Monkey by clicking on her adorable pic over in the sidebar. Every little bit adds up.


I had a lot of fun rereading your comments and trying to make a letter out of them. The p.s. is actually from an email after a comment, but I think Mama Kiss will be okay with that. Isn't it amazing how you can "meet" someone in the blog world and feel like you've known them forever, even though it's only been a week?

Dear Shell,


Where have you been my whole life!!?! Am loving your blog already! You are a smart lady. I frequently put my foot in my mouth and there is no place to hide. Love that you have the courage to speak your mind without worrying about being "correct" about it. You go girl! I don't know you IRL, but I think the internet-you is fabulous :) You're a girl after my own heart.


Love the new look! LOVE the new design! Yes. Yes by the way! If I didn't mention it yesterday- love the new wallpaper and curtains around here :) I adore your blog lay-out; it's possibly the best one I've seen, since I'm also such a beach girl. I love all of the flip-flops!


Wait...there is a boob fairy? NO FREAKIN' WAY! I have so been lied to....I have to go eat chocolate now....I'd rather be small and perky. Hauling them dogs around is not fun, and they are not pretty when you're hauling ass on the treadmill at the gym.


Well, at least Monkey knows daddy has some part in it - if he is putting the girl mix in your grilled cheese sandwich... hmmm... could be code...My daughter wanted a dog, but my husband told her that would be like having another brother. Now she doesn't want either one!


Your boys are cute and funny! I'm pretty sure I would've pet the alligator but I would've been freaking out! Lol Alligator actually tastes a lot like chicken, so I can understand why your little one tried to bite it ;)


I have PMS, period, After-MS, and one halfway decent week unless somebody pisses me off.... PMS almost looks like a video game system...especially when you wrote "PMS 3 weeks out of every month" - New to stores in June: The PMS 3! Husbands, hold on to your wives, this is going to be a wild ride.


Family...the other f-word. If there's one thing I've learned from blogging it's don't tell your family! Then you can't talk about them :) My brother was the one being mean to me the other day, but then I deleted him as a friend on fb. Much better.


Yeah, so glad to see your smiling face... kinda. you know, in a weird blogger online sorta way. "Next time, let's put a little less bitch mix in your grilled cheese."

I still crack up over motherbitch! You can run in our group if you want. I'll even let you hold my Edward doll. Because he's/you're important. I like the soft side of you as well as your sarcastic side. And yes, blog friends ARE real. Let's all take a vacation to bloggy land. By the way, you have no idea how important YOU have been in my blogging life. THANK YOU! :)


Love your blog. Love you. You are gorgeous! You rock at blogging. Okay, seriously I don't know how there can be people who don't know about YOU yet.


Love,
Your fabulous and loyal friends


P.S. So will you wear my 'half-bff' necklace? Which half do you want? I prefer the BE FRI half...