Romi Lassally was exhausted. The youngest of her three kids had been throwing up all night. The last time it happened, the puke hit the floor and Lassally was just too tired to do anything about it. She put Owen back to bed and climbed into bed herself, hoping the dog would eat it and she wouldn’t have to clean up the mess in the morning.
A few days later, Lassally confessed her bad mom moment to a friend and was amazed at the response she got. Yes, her friend was disgusted, but also amused. And she had her own litany of bad mommy moments.
“It was great to admit to my flawed parenting-a big parenting don’t,” Lassally says. “What I got back was, oh my God, I’ve thought of that. It opened the floodgates with this one person.”
Lassally figured if she and her close pals found it cathartic to “confess,” then plenty of other moms would too. She created truemomconfessions.com, where parents can confess their less-than-perfect life or click the “me too” button if they’ve felt, or acted, the same way.
“It’s just refreshing and comforting to know that, on a hard day, you’re just not alone,” she says. “And just when you think you’re being the biggest mom hypocrite, someone else is doing the same thing or even topping you.”
Recently Lassally compiled some of her favorite confessions into a book, True Mom Confessions: Real Moms Get Real. Here are a few favorites:
- “Last night my son threw his pacifier. I got so mad at him and yelled, ‘We don’t throw things!’ And then I threw it at him.”
- “The real reason we can’t go to your friend’s house? The mommies don’t play well together.”
- “I haven’t taught my kids to tell time yet … that way I can say it’s bedtime whenever I want.”
- “We held a PTA meeting at my house last night. All the moms marveled at my clean home. Good thing they didn’t look too closely-I’d put all the dirty dishes in the oven and stuffed the overflowing pile of clothes (and the stinky dog bed!) in the hall closet.”
- “I left my three kids in the hotel room and went and had sex with my husband in the stairwell!”
