On Friday, I felt like a total failure. A friend invited us to the park, and I thought, “Yes, we need this.” I’ve been having a lot of guilt over not being outside enough with my son (it’s been hard to do that for a number of reasons). The story in my head was: This is your chance to redeem yourself and be a better mom. That narrative inside my head is exactly why the following events were such a blow to my confidence and self-worth: My son was so excited, asking me all day when we’d leave....

I got this message yesterday on Instagram: “Your videos are always so amazing. It seems like you have endless patience. How do you have the capacity at the end of a long day to still be silly? I find myself wanting it to move quickly and them just do what they need to so we can get to bedtime.” I’m going to be completely honest… I’m not a patient person by nature. I can lose my patience easily. I usually want things to move faster. I often start eating my food before I even get to the table...

Things have been rough around here. My baby girl has been very unhappy, and it’s been heartbreaking and stressful. On top of that, my husband’s been working seven-day weeks, and my almost-threenager has been having big feelings about it all. There’s been a lot of screaming from both kiddos. (And I, myself, may have stepped into another room yesterday to scream) I haven’t felt playful. I’ve been stressed and worried. And with that, the guilt creeps in—telling me it’s my fault my son is...