Going to high school parent teacher interviews wearing my pants inside out AND backwards.

I remembered it was interview night about 10 minutes before my first appointment, so that is probably another fail and could explain my outfit. The MOMENT I walk in my house from the outside world, I immediately take off my “hard pants” (also known as jeans) and put on my track pants. I quickly threw on some cargo pants, and well, you know how that landed.

“I’m not a regular mom, I’m a cool mom.”

My teens held a Hallowe’en party, so it only made sense that I wear the costume of Regina George’s mom from Mean Girls. It was a pink velour track suit. The problem being, of course, that it is extremely comfortable. So I wear it outside of Hallowe’en and in public. Hallowe’en not needed.

The “Champagne Birthday”

My third child turned 20 this year on the twentieth of November. When their older sister turned eight on the eighth of March many years ago, we celebrated this champagne birthday with a trip to NYC. For this child, I completely forgot. I have a friend who has a child born on the same day of the same year, so I was excitedly “liking” their celebrations without connecting the dots that it meant my child also had a special birthday. It took me three days before I realized. Welcome to middle child life.

I’m sure there are many, many more, but we like to take this opportunity to laugh and recognize that moms are not perfect. I’m OK with my fails and can only imagine what they will be in the upcoming year. I often joke that I gave up “mom guilt” four kids ago. We have to allow our kids to laugh at us and laugh at ourselves.

For my other mom fails check out these from 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021

The post Julie Cole’s 2022 Mom Fails appeared first on The Mabelhood.

As my children get older, I find some of my “Mom Fails” are more like “Mom Trolls.” Those of you who have teenagers can surely appreciate and relate to how easy and enjoyable it is to see them cringe. This year it is a mix of “whoopsies” and cringe-worthy moments.

Accidentally letting the 12-year-old watch Sex Education.

If you have not seen this series yet, it’s pretty racy at times. I thought I’d go to sleep watching the last few episodes of the first season. I promptly fell asleep, to which my friends commented, “only Julie could fall asleep during Sex Education!”

Regardless, once I dozed off, 12-year-old Fin crawled into bed with me and proceeded to watch the last three episodes. When morning came, I was greeted with “Mom! You are NEVER going to believe what happened in the final episode of Sex Education!”  

Oh, and I did it again in the series “You,” which is about a stalker/killer. Again, not for the eyes of a 12-year-old.

The near OD

I always believed you could not OD on Vitamin C. With all the colds going around, and in this pandemic climate – I encouraged my kids to be downing little tablets of vitamin C. I relayed that they’d urinate out anything the body didn’t require. My teen clearly has trust issues, so they took to doing some research and forwarded me this:

“Yes, you can. Many people assume that since vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, you can never take too much of it. Their reasoning is that you’ll essentially just pee out any excess. Although this is true, if you take more than the amount your body can excrete, it will not go over well. Side effects include nausea and diarrhea – two things any sane person should avoid.”

Besties

My 16-year-old asked me to hold her butterfly necklace during her hockey game. I agreed then proceeded to lose it. Because she had bought her BFF the same one to give her at an upcoming birthday, I had to order my kid one, so the girls had matching butterfly necklaces. Fair enough – I ordered another one, and the two friends are happily matching.

Funny turn of events – I found the original butterfly necklace, and now I wear it too. The girls love when I tell them how much I love being a part of their “bestie trio,” and I will always treasure my butterfly necklace. You can actually feel their rage, and it’s awesome. 

Speaking of Besties

A few weeks ago, I went to brunch and ran into a few of my teen daughter’s besties. So, of course, I sat down with them and took a selfie. I sent this to my daughter. Her reaction says everything. 

My Elf Efforts 

My kids are done with the Elf, but I have a niece who lives two doors down and comes over every day to see where our Elf is. So, we’re not entirely off the hook for elf hiding duties just yet. After hiding the Elf the other day, my son texted me this message. Clearly, I’m also an “Aunt Fail.”

There is another year of parenting in the books with wins, losses, laughter, and tears! I hope you all survived this tricky year with your kiddos and are looking forward to more fun and shenanigans in 2022!

The post Mom Fails 2021; Trolling My Teens and Other Parenting Mishaps appeared first on The Mabelhood.

Because we could all use a little laugh at the end of the dumpster fire of 2020, here are my biggest mom fails that made the list this year:

The Classic Hockey Kid Mix-Up:

We have a lot of kids in hockey. At one point in early 2020, before COVID saved me from having to spend every waking moment at a hockey arena, I was running around trying to get several kids to different places at the same time. On this particular day, I told my kid I’d put his hockey bag in the car because we were running late. That was my first mistake: I accidentally packed a sibling’s hockey bag. Later that day, I dropped him off for practice at the wrong arena. There were no mistakes left to make after that.

The Chocolate Bunny Massacre of 2020:

I thought I got all the Easter treats organized well in advance this year. Imagine my shock when I went to perform Easter Bunny duties and discovered the chocolate had been picked at by large family of mice that apparently took up residency in my home. Imagine my childrens’ shock when that’s what they got for Easter anyway!

COVID Hair Cuts:

My kid got sick of his long, unkept quarantine hair. I get it, I got sick of mine, too. One night he asked for a haircut, so I handed him a pair of scissors and said “have at it”.

Mommy/Daughter Date Night at the Liquor Store:

When you have a kid who is of legal drinking age, and she wants quality time with her mother, and you’re in the middle of a pandemic – it just seemed to make sense. This kid can’t say I’ve never done anything fun with her! #MomDaughterDateNight.

This parenting gig is hard enough, but 2020 certainly provided us with a whole host of additional challenges. No matter what our screw ups were this year, we all deserve a big pat on the back for having simply survived it. Let’s see what 2021 has in store for us!

Want to read about more of my most shameful parenting moments? Check out my best mom fails of 2019 here.

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