It's Exhausting...

....Trying to be the perfect mom, that is.  After all, what is the perfect mom? Does everybody picture the perfect mom the same?  I try day in and day out to be the best mom I can be.  I try to do things I believe "the perfect" mom would do.  I make my oldest son and his friends after school snacks.  I bake cookies with my kids, we go for nature walks, we read together, sit together and have family dinners together.   So why is it that I feel like I am depriving my children of the "perfect mom?" Damn you perfect mom and screw the person who came up with that idea.
  Is there a real life June Cleaver out there? If there is, I want to meet her, shake her hand and bow down to her.  My gosh, I have a hard enough time getting myself out of bed in the morning.  This woman not only gets herself out of bed, she gets her children up (may i mention without any struggles), dresses herself AND cooks THE perfect breakfast.  WHAT???? not to mention she does all the shopping, cooking and cleaning.  There can't be someone out there that does all this, can there be?
Sure I do the food shopping MOST of the time.  Cooking.. well, that's another story but I do do ALL of the cleaning and let me tell you cleaning up after three other people is a job all in it of itself.  So why do i feel guilty if I'm not interacting with my children every second of the day.  Why do I feel guilty if I choose cleaning the tub rather than sitting down with the little guy and reading a book.  I'll tell you why, because the perfect mom would be able to do all that - and more.  But as i sit and write this i came to the  sudden realization that although we may not think we are the perfect mom, our children certainly think we are.