We were listening to old plot twist recordings in the car the other day (silly stories we made up together in the plot twist app that’s included in the Silly Moments Bundle) and one in particular made me teary-eyed.

It was a story about a fox named “Hedge Barnit” (my son comes up with the best character names).

The fox constantly knocked things over with his tail, so all the forest creatures would say “Oh, darn it, here comes Hedge Barnit) when they noticed him coming…

Aside from laughing at the sheer hilarity and randomness fueled by kiddo imagination, a few things got me all up in my feels:

• At one point in the recording we could hear baby snoring and it unlocked the memory that I’d been recording this while my then-baby daughter was asleep on my chest 🥹
• My son’s voice was soo little… the recording isn’t even a year old yet and it’s wild to hear how fast his little voice has changed… 😭
• I heard real-life proof that I was doing a good job. I was present, warm, including his ideas, balancing it all with caring for my daughter when she woke and was fussy for a moment…

We are SO hard on ourselves as parents. 😮‍💨

When we’re smack-dab in the thick of parenting chaos, we’re experiencing all of it at once: the mental load, the overstimulation, the thing we wish we’d handled differently, the seventeen-jillion other things we’re trying to remember.

It’s hard to see ourselves clearly from in there!

But listening back, I could see myself a little more like I’d see a friend. I had a lot more self-compassion.

I wasn’t keeping score of everything I could’ve done better. I just heard a mom who loved her kids and was doing her best to be present with them.

That made me think: “Huh! I was doing better than I thought I was.”

And that made me think: “HMM. I’m probably doing better than I think I am, now, TOO.”

My invitation for you this week:

(I know it’s a little hippy-dippy, just stick with me mmkay?)

Scroll through your camera roll or voice memos and take a quick trip down memory lane.

Tell your past self, “You’re doing better than you think.”

Now imagine traveling into the future and coming back to revisit THIS moment.

Imagine getting that same message from your future self:

You’re doing better than you think.

Cheering you on always,

Mia

P.S. Shout-out to Anna who had the brilliant request for a black-and-white, more printer-friendly version of Play Break Bingo. I’ve made one now! You can grab it HERE - print, download, and have enough silly moments for the month! (second page is the black-and-white version - color the squares as you go!)

(I’ve also added black-and-white versions of the “Year of Silly Moments” sheets that live inside the Silly Moment Bundle. If you already have that, you’ll see it at the bottom of the app hub!

P.P.S. ANNOUNCEMENT in case you didn’t see on Instagram… I’m writing a BOOK! 🥹📖

I’m thrilled to finally share that I’ve been working on a book and officially have a book deal with Park Row Books, an imprint of HarperCollins! It still feels a little surreal to type that.

I feel incredibly grateful and excited to get to turn so much of what we’ve been talking about here for years into a real-life book.

If you are here because you signed up for my book updates, you’re already on my special book list — no need to do anything! 💞

If you didn’t, but you’d like to be along for the behind-the-scenes book-writing journey and get updates as I go, tap HERE and I’ll add you to the "book updates" group too.

More from Playful Heart Parenting:

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