So I’m laying in my camper this morning, 2 girls fast asleep, me thinking how terrible this bed is & how much my back hurts, scrolling through Instagram, and I come across this quote. It said this:

“It takes a Female to have a baby. It takes a Woman to raise a child. It takes a Mother to raise them correctly. It takes a Warrior to show them how to change the world.” – Shannon Alder

In terms of being a woman & a mother, it’s a wonderful quote. I get it. It’s empowering & self motivating & it deserves all the credit when it comes to making a mother feel like a lioness. It’s an amazing reminder for single mothers that they are doing an awesome job. I do, however, think it takes away from being parents. Yes. That’s with the “s”. Plural. Because if you are given the option, being a parent with 4 hands instead of 2 is ideal. It takes 2 things to make a baby, and both don’t come from a single person. And dad’s are just as amazing as moms (though we cuss them under our breath sometimes because they don’t come in the house till 15 minutes before it’s time to leave). So I decided to alter this quote a little bit. One legged mommy style. Because without my husband, my children’s dad, life would be a whole lot harder.

Did you know after I had my second child, I almost bled out? Not immediately after child birth, but 3 days later. I hemorrhaged on the day we got to bring our daughter home. Which is ironic because I pushed to have them let us go home when they wanted to keep her one extra day. And I am so, so thankful that God had allowed for my in-laws to come visit that night, or I am sure I would not be here because the time that it takes for you to pack up a toddler & a new born & make it to the hospital, might have been more time than I had. And we both know that you don’t put the pedal to the metal with 2 kids in the back. So I am so, so thankful that my mother & father in-law were there to keep our kids while we drove 90mph to our local hospital. And when I got there my hemoglobin was 3.1 (an adult has 8-12 units in their bodies typically). And all I remember thinking is “he can not raise 2 kids by himself”. Not that I didn’t think he could do it, I just didn’t want him to have to. I wanted to be there too. But the moral of this story is that I wasn’t worried about my kids quality of life if I happened to have not of made it. And that’s because I knew they had him. A dad who has calloused hands & a farmers tan 3/4 of the year. A dad who plays pony & has tea parties & plays pretend WWE wrestling, even if it is behind closed doors. A dad who will go the extra mile no matter how tired he is or if it means he won’t be coming in the house till 9 because he had to go to his daughters recital. And I know not all kids are as lucky as mine to have a dad like my kids do, but I do know that we shouldn’t take away from his amazingness & the HUGE roll he plays in my children’s & I’s lives because of that either.

Life is all about adjusting, so I modified the quote a little bit to make it fit for my life. Because though I know I do a lot for my kids, I know my husband does too. And that deserves equal recognition in my books. 100:100. That’s the ratio when it comes to being a parent & a spouse. And even if you are doing this thing called life by yourself & even if you have one or two or six tiny hands holding yours, as long as you are doing your 100%, you are doing a good job. Doesn’t matter if you are a mom or dad. Because it takes 100% to be a good parent & raise children who will grow up to be good people. And your children will recognize, though it may not be right away, that their mom and/or dad gave it their all. And that’s how you start the next generation of parents off on the right foot.

#TheOneLeggedMommy #ChangeUp #MyVersion #MomsAreAmazing #DadsAreAmazing #Equals #GiveItOneHundredPercent #ParentingAintEasy #Amputee #Amputation #GivingCredit #Hemorrhaging #NecrotizingFasciitis

P. S. I know there are all kinds of situations out there. Sometimes Dad raises the kids. Sometimes a mom does. Sometimes big sister does & sometimes Grandma does. Sometimes a child gets put into foster care for a stranger to raise them & sometimes a child gets adopted. But this post is about the ideal of being a parent. About filling shoes when shoes are needed to be filled. So no harsh comments please. I just wanted to give the good Dad’s, the dads that tried, a little bit of credit.