Perfection

Husband Chad said something to me a week or so back that really resonated, I thought it would be a perfect way to get over the Monday blues of yesterday and restart your week on a positive note. He said “I don’t have to be the best father; I just have to be the best father to Farrah.” So Simple. So True.

A lot of women struggle with being perfect. Not to say men don’t, but it does seem to be more of a woman’s eternal need to please. You’ve probably seen the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation’s latest ad campaign urging women to take better care of themselves, get checked out, and reminding women that heart disease is the number one killer of women in Canada. Well in this ad campaign it states, something along the lines of, “she’s so worried about it getting her husband, she forgot about herself.” Take that in life, there are so many times women have sacrificed themselves to better their family, all for the sake of being perfect. An unattainable goal, or is it?

Perfect is a relative term; what’s perfect to you, may not be perfect to someone else and what’s not perfect to one person, may be perfect to you. There we go, back to Husband Chad’s so simple statement, you don’t have to be perfect, just be perfect for your family, for your friends, and for those you love and care about. And here’s the funny thing about it, your family, your friends, and those you love and care about already think you’re perfect or they wouldn’t have you in their lives. If you feel no matter what you do is never good enough and you are hitting a hard wall of criticism, perhaps it’s time to talk to the person who’s standards you feel you’re not living up to. Chances are you’re being too hard on yourself and they don’t realize their criticism is hurting. And if they do know it’s hurting and continue anyways that is a toxic person you don’t need in your life and you don’t need to impress or live up to their unattainable standards. Live for your own standards and make them realistic.

Should you give up on doing the little extra? Going out of your way to make someone’s day or week or month or life special- no. Continue doing it. But when the best laid plans are scattered across your living room floor and you know there is no way you can get 6 hours of rest, let alone 8 and clean it all up, let ‘em lie. Pick it up tomorrow or the next day or the next week. Don’t set the bar lower, keep your standards high, but don’t think you’re not perfect if you let something fall out of order once and a while. Gaud knows I do. I do a lot. But I also know people don’t visit to inspect my housecleaning abilities, they come over to see me and a little of Baby Farrah, (or the more likely scenario, they come over to see Baby Farrah and a little of me), either way if my hair’s a little messy (or more likely a lot messy) and my blemishes are showing, my clothes still a little too tight for beach season, I’m positive they’ll still come back and visit tomorrow and the next day and the next. Probably because the sock I left lying on the floor, with the other 10 clothing items, is comforting to them. A reminder that not everyone’s perfect, but everyone’s perfect to the ones who love them.