There are a lot of things that have changed about me since becoming a single mom. I’d hate to admit it, but my parenting standards have become fairly low.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still pay top dollar for a good bar of chocolate, but when it comes to motherhood, I’ve lowered the bar far enough to be able to step over it while eating said bar of chocolate.
For instance, when my daughter decided she wanted to wear a gray dress with a silvery tutu for Thanksgiving, I was relieved I didn’t need to go shopping for a new outfit. Then, I realized there was a small stain on the front. You know the kind, the darkened little spot courtesy a pizza spill.
The old me would have immediately put the dress away and made a mad dash to Target for an entirely new outfit, complete with new tights.
The new, lower bar me realized no one would notice once she put on her thirteen strands of pearls.
When Joseph wanted to wear his favorite Angry Birds tee shirt to Thanksgiving dinner, the old me would have insisted on him wearing a color coordinated, Gap-style outfit, preferably with a bowtie and a newsboy cap.
The new me did a quick check to make sure dinner was a casual affair and then told him to wear whatever he wanted.
It’s not that I’m lazy. It’s not that I don’t care. It’s that I have a finite amount of time with my children and I’d rather spend it having fun than pretty much anything else. Besides, the high bar would have resulted in me on Prozac.
So in my case, lowering the bar was a good thing.
How high or low is your bar?
