Our imperfectly perfect family

There is no perfect family photo framed in our home, but we are not your perfect family.⠀

We go to the beach for the weekend and spend too much time inside our room watching television.⠀

We choose to eat ice creams for lunch over pre-made ham and lettuce sandwiches. ⠀

We don’t take enough nappies and forget sunblock.⠀

But this is us.⠀

This is how we family a lot of the time.⠀

Forgetfully, imperfectly. ⠀

And to us, that’s perfectly normal.⠀

This is our normal. ⠀

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One’s exhausted from growing rapidly, one’s exhausted from being pregnant, one’s exhausted from working hard and one’s exhausted from being busy every moment of every day while awake.⠀

We are exhausted.⠀

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One isn’t being walked on the beach as recommended by health professionals, one’s trying to stay awake with coffee, one’s watching sport and one’s on yet another bottle of milk to give us a few rare minutes of peace.⠀

We are surviving.⠀

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One doesn’t know what the world is about to offer, one doesn’t know how she’s about to juggle it all, one doesn’t know whether he’s about to be completely outnumbered, and one doesn’t know what is about to turn her whole world upside down.⠀

We are blind.⠀

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One’s about to be a younger sibling, one’s about to become a mum of two, one’s about to work even harder, and one’s about to have to learn to share. ⠀

We are changing. ⠀

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There are no two ways about it. ⠀

Growing a family can be exhausting, raising a family can be exhausting and being part of a family can be exhausting.⠀

And it’s not just because of the physical implications, but the emotional too.⠀

It demands a lot, from everyone, every day.

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Yet we choose to do it all over again. ⠀

We choose to grow. ⠀

We choose to be a bigger number, need a bigger car and have a bigger heart. ⠀

We choose imperfect.⠀

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Because at the end of the day, for us, exhaustion, uncertainty, change and imperfect is what gives us perfect.

It gives us family.