Balance

My SIL was confessing that she is a perfectionist, AND that she wants to be a perfect mom. I think all of us want to be a perfect mom, and I thought about how I feel about my parenting, and I this is how I feel about it:

Sometimes my kids poop in the bathtub, and then BIGGER kids try to stomp on it. Sometimes I get splashed with that same crap water. And I feel like a crap mom (no pun intended, really!)
Sometimes I make my daughter cry harder than she already was by minimizing what she thinks is a BIG BIG deal.
Sometimes my son describes my friend as that "BIG HUGE FAT LADY?", and he tells people at church that his grandpa farts too loud.
Sometimes my kids tell me I yell too much and that I don't play with them enough.
BUT then...just the other day, one of my sons pulled out a chair for me when we went out to eat for my birthday. And I heard him tell the waitress "thanks for dinner".
And my daughter told me that she's glad that she can help take care of her little brother. And my other son said I was a "good mama" because I made some really crappy sweet-n-sour chicken (overcooked rice and chewy chicken). And just recently, my son told his sister she was "lovely".
But then...that was because the other son called her a butt head.
I figure it all balances out in the end. At least I hope it does.