How to Be the World's Okayest Mom: A 10-Step Guide

My friend Christine posted a hilarious article yesterday called, "Shout Out to the World's Okayest Moms" (click here), which detailed all of the great things about being an Okayest Mom, including your children not always (ever?) eating vegetables, lacking creative lunches, bringing store-brought goods to parties, having a store-purchased birthday party, skipping reading, watching TV, and rocking wrinkly underwear.

I love this, and I think that I, too, rock at being the World's Okayest Mom. For anyone wondering how they, too, could be an Okay Mom, here is a 10-Step Guide:

10. Eat at McDonald's - It's true. I would argue that we do not eat at McDonald's very often, but my children are convinced that it is just part of our regular meal rotation, just like spaghetti or taco night. One time my son commented, "Mom, it has been a very long time since we have eaten at McDonald's. Like, it has been way over a week."

9. Cereal for Dinner - Why wait until your spouse goes out of town to serve this delicious meal to your darling children? Cereal for dinner can be yours, too, any time you want it.

8. Forget weather appropriate clothing - Awesome Moms let their children wear whatever they want as long as it is weather appropriate. Okayest Moms let their children wear whatever they want, period, and hope that the hypothermia they suffer will be enough of a natural consequence to encourage better decisions in the future.

7. Who needs baths?? Baths are overrated, right? And going swimming in a pool with so many chemicals it kills all bacteria within a 50 mile radius surely counts as two baths, right?

6. Mismatched socks - This is seriously the best trend ever. Okayest Moms recognize this and just quit matching socks all together and tell their kids, "Just grab two random socks! I promise you'll be trendy!"

5. Ghostbusters at age 4 - FOUR!!! Quite honestly this is not something I would have been okay with on my own, but Okayest Dads need a voice, too. And then you, too, can crow with pride when your 4-year-old tells anyone will listen that this is his favorite movie and proceeds to describe it in great detail.

4. Lego Batman 2 - I am not sure what the fascination is with this video game, but my son is so obsessed that I will let him play without me being in the same room, which I am sure violates violates every principle of responsible media usage. This way, your son, too, can answer "Pass" when asked about his favorite book, but respond instantly with "Lego Batman 2!" when asked for his favorite game.

3. Stay up for the World Series - Forget the final game and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the Royals fight to make history. We let our kids stay up all week long for every single baseball game. Plus side - now they are much more interested in baseball than before. Winning!

2. Cookie Decorating Fail - Okayest Moms not only bring in store brought everything for the cookie decorating station at the class party, they fail to plan appropriately and run out of ingredients after the first one of of three groups have made their way through. Thankfully 1st graders have low expectations and still declare, "Whoever planned this party is AWESOME!"

1. Love Your Children with Every Fiber of Your Being - One thing unites Awesome Moms and Okayest Moms is that both love their children with all of their soul and with all of their strength and with all of their might. So if, too, are rocking the store-brought parties, letting your kids engage in somewhat inappropriate media usage, and worried that your children might show up on What Not to Wear, remember that in the end, loving your children with every fiber of your being is all that matters.