I have said and heard the word “inadequate” in the last week more times than I can count. I think it’s just plain sad. Why do so many of us feel inadequate? What (or who) exactly is it that we’re trying to measure up to? I’m not sure I can even answer that. I personally feel like I am juggling so many balls and I’m starting to drop them, but my husband thinks I’m doing a wonderful job. How can there be such a discrepancy? I guess it’s me. Maybe I am too hard on myself…well, not maybe. I know I am, but what is the alternative? Really. Just in my life alone, I am working full time, working on my Master’s degree, and babysitting at least twice a week. None of this stops just because I’m exhausted or because I’m sick. The house still needs to be cleaned, dinner has to be cooked, bills have to be paid, and I can’t even imagine adding kids to this picture!! Kudos to moms!! (Side note: I must say that my husband is a tremendous help.)
Within the last week, so many tears have been shed over this feeling of inadequacy, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the tears all came from women. Where are we getting this message that we all need to have the perfect 5-course meal on the table by 5:00 every day, the perfect body at all times, the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect kids, the perfect evaluations/grades (for those of us in school), the perfect clothes, the perfect clean house…? The list goes on. I (and many others) need the message that IT’S O.K. But I guess it has to be up to us to relay that message to ourselves…