Finding Myself: The disease of "Perfection" by Single Dad Laughing

I read this blog post over at Single Dad Laughing 

(I also read this one and cracked up because "the cat came back" was always

one of my favorite songs as a kid)

 after one of my lovely ladies from Punky Moms posted it on her facebook,

and really felt compelled to share my thoughts on it.

Read the post. I'll wait.

Seriously.

Go.

Do it NOW!!

Ok, done reading? Then lets proceed, shall we?

It really amazes me that this is something that hasn't been addressed before. The images that we see all day long on the internet and TV do nothing but make us thing we're too fat, too lazy, too poor, and just plain not good enough.

Now, trust me when I say this, I have had serious issues with "perfection", and still do from time to time. Luckily for me, I was raised with a fairly good self image, with a truly loving and caring family, so that was never that much of an issue when I was a child.

But we all feel it.

Everyone gets the "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome, and I have been known to spend money I didn't have just because I didn't want to tell my friends/family/coworkers that I didn't have any.

I've looked at myself in the mirror and felt ugly.

I've watched my children and felt like I was a bad mother.

I've looked at the wonderful man in my life and felt like I was not good enough for him.

Now, in my heart of hearts, I know that all of that is total crap, but its very difficult to keep it from creeping back into my mind, like the nasty little bugger it is.

Its really difficult to hear stories of people being bullied (including grown adults)
and know that it could easily be avoided or stopped if they had just
had a better self image.

It goes back to the "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" idea.

Someone can tell you you're ugly, stupid or not good enough all day long,
but if you know that you are wonderful, beautiful and amazing (which EVERYONE is)
then their words can do absolutely NOTHING to you.

Its like Dan says, make someone feel perfect by showing them that NOT being perfect is OK!

We've all been there, we've all done that, felt that, experienced that.

I know that when I first separated from my ex husband, it was very difficult not to fall into the
"what ifs" and the "I should've"'s, but thankfully I had my awesome mom, and eventually my boyfriends mom and family that helped me through it, and helped me realize that it wasn't my fault.

Yes, you did read that right.

It wasn't all my fault. It wasn't all my ex's fault either. It happened, and nothing was going to change that, but all I could do was be the best mom and daughter that I could be.

And it seems like that is the first step, realizing that when things happen to you, you can either let it destroy you, or grow and learn from it. I chose the latter.

This is never easy to admit, and much harder to do on a web based blog that people I don't know will read, but I feel that its important to show that even though I'm working on my "Inner Goddess", I'm not perfect, and just like everyone else, I have my times of weakness.

I hope that you all read this amazing post and start to follow SDL. His posts are alternately amazing and funny (and sometimes amazingly funny), and his message is wonderful.

Be a little more "Real" today, and help cure the disease that's called "perfection".

Much Love!!
GG