Finding Gratitude When You’re in the Trenches of Parenting

There is no doubt, motherhood is a wonderful, messy, tiring and hard journey. Use this simple practice to help you find gratitude, on even the hardest of days. How to fill your heart with appreciation and love for the people you are blessed to call family, and watch as the challenging moments instantly become insignificant. How to find gratitude when you’re in the trenches of parenting. 

I have three kids (and two dogs and a husband) which if you really want to know, is like having 1,000 kids.

There are great days, hard days, laugh-until-you-cry days, messy days, mom bun and yoga pant days and bone-tired days.

There are days where I get out of the house in the morning and realize I forgot to brush my teeth and others, when I hustle past the other parents at pick-up, so I can see my kids run out the doors first because I missed them so much.

Somedays I’m exhausted and think 8:03pm is an appropriate bedtime and some nights I stay up until 11:30 because I’m touched-out and need time by myself, even at the expense of sleep.

Some nights I make dinner from scratch with ingredients I surprisingly have in the fridge, and other times, I order pizza with a side of chocolate chip cookies just for myself.

Sometimes my kids beg for “breakfast dinner” and because it’s the easiest meal in the world to make, I happily oblige.

Some mornings I wake up to go to the gym at 5am and sometimes I wear my workout clothes all day long so you at least think I went to workout, but I snoozed right through the alarm that morning.

By 3pm, I’ve often reheated my coffee at least four times before I’ve had a sip, and once in a blue moon I drink it in the silence of my kitchen while all the little kittens are sound asleep in their beds and the day is still dark.

On Sundays I try to have all the laundry is washed, folded and put away, but most of the time, I hit the dryer button three times before the load gets folded.

There are days where I say, “I have no idea what I’m doing” or think, “I’m not any good at this” and other days when my kids tell me “today was the best day ever” when I kiss them goodnight and I think, “I’m doing a good job.”

Parenthood is a life of maybes, sometimes, once in a whiles and a perfectly imperfect jungle of ups and downs, of great days and challenging days.

No matter what type of day I’ve had or how tired I am, there is one thing I do every night before I fall asleep.

This one thing is what centers and reminds me of how appreciative I am to be in this journey of Motherhood. (hang tight, I have a free printable at the end of this post to help you too.) 

Gratitude.

Each night I say thank you for my children, for their health, for our time together and then I make a list of 10 things I am grateful for from the day.

I don’t just jot down things to tick off the boxes such as saying I’m grateful for a Starbucks Chai Latte or Game of Thrones reruns.

What I’ve found is that when I really look for the meaningful moments, everything else disappears and my heart is filled with love for the children and family I am blessed with.

I write things like this…

My son encouraging my poor throwing skills in a game of catch.

The smirk my daughter and I shared across the dinner table when Daddy shared another corny joke.

My youngest coming to my side of the bed in the morning to sleep for five more minutes, cuddled up warm with her chubby hands on my face.

These are what I’m grateful for. 

When I go to bed having reflected on all the good things I have in my life, it fills me with positivity and love.  Any hard moments, a disastrous dinner, and times when all I wanted was silence and there was only constant chatter… it all melts away.

The hard stuff no longer holds any significance because the good stuff, the positive stuff, the moments you’re grateful for, is what gives you the peace to drift to sleep with a full, and happy heart.

I’m sharing a printable sheet called Gratitude Notes which prompts you to write down 10 things you are grateful for each day. Do this for 30 days to build the habit and by the end of this time, I know you’ll have a deeper appreciation and love for your family, home, and life than when you began.

Download Your Free Printable: Gratitude Notes to help you find gratitude when you’re in the trenches of parenting.