If I had one piece of advice to offer my younger momma self, it would be pick your battles. Let me say it again! Pick Your Battles! You c.a.n.n.o.t. fight them all. Well, actually, you can fight them all, but that is all you’d ever be doing. And, how much fun would life be for you or for your family?

I’m not talking about big stuff. Of course, you have to address the big stuff. Handle disobedience when you see it happening. Deal with your mouthy teens. Keep your little ones safe. After all, it it our jobs to train up our children. So, we have to fight the big battles. One of my biggest tips for mothers is to do with your beauty routine. You are going to struggle to find the time to do your make up or fix your hair into the perfect style every day with kids running around. So, invest in good quality treatments for your hair, your skin and your teeth, like going to this Dentist Alhambra, so that even on your worst days you still look great.

Everything is not big. Everything isn’t even almost big. There are so many little battlegrounds we encounter on a daily basis that there is no way we can effectively fight them all. And, really… Should we? Should we take a stand on every little thing?

Clothing. Oh… I’m coming out with the big guns, huh? Well, clothing can be a big issue. Please know that I’m not talking about anything immodest. I’m talking about our kids wearing things that might embarrass us. It used to drive me NUTS when my boys wanted to go out in public with me in their ripped up, almost outgrown blue jeans. Inevitably, those would be the ones they grabbed every time it was time to head to the store.

What were the neighbors going to think? Really? I could afford to buy them clothes that fit and were intact. They just chose not to wear them. They weren’t as comfy and broken in as their favorite pair of jeans.

It was a battle! Until I instituted the “this one counts” rule. If we were going out to eat or to church or somewhere else where they really needed to be presentable, I would let them know that this one counts. They had to put on clean clothes. Clothes with no holes. And, jeans that weren’t three inches too short! Other than that, it was all up to them!

Costumes. This one wasn’t as big a deal for me, but I have some friends who just couldn’t handle it. I can’t count how many times Spiderman or Cinderella accompanied me to the grocery store or the library. The reality is that they really are only little once. They will have the rest of their lives to take themselves too seriously. I knew they wouldn’t be 25 years old and dressing up like Captain America to go run errands.

Little did I know that my middle son, Isaac, would be so comfortable in his own skin. So comfortable that he doesn’t really care what others think about him. So comfortable that he regularly wears his Cookie Monster fleece pajama pants to school. Yep to public school. As a senior in high school, mind you. But, you know what? There are so many bigger things in this life than if he wears his pajamas to school. If it’s not against dress code, I just don’t care.

Shoes. I remember battling my oldest child about footwear. No! You can NOT wear your Thomas the Tank Engine slippers to daycare or the store or to church. You might have to go outside. His daycare teachers helped me get over that one real fast. It wasn’t worth starting our day with a battle of the wills over shoes. So, I’d carry his little 3yo self into daycare wearing Thomas the Tank Engine slippers and his tennis shoes tucked into his backpack. He was all smiles, and I didn’t start our days with a screaming match.

Dirt. Oh the dirt. I wasn’t prepared for the dirt that comes with little boys. Actually, I was less prepared for the dirt that comes with little girls who have two big brothers. And rocks. In my dryer. Every.single.day! Anyhow, back to the dirt. Logan did not like dirt. He didn’t like finger painting or shaving cream or pudding, either. Isaac, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough dirt on him. And, he’d fill his pockets with rocks and grass and sticks and cars and everything else he could fit in there. Emma was the ultimate collector of all things outdoors…rocks, acorns, little twigs. You name it, she collected it.

You know what? Dirt washes off {mostly}. It always washes off the kids. It usually washes off the shoes. Most of the time it washes off the clothes. Let them get dirty. Let them explore the world around them in the most hands-on way. That’s what the bathtub is for!

The bottom line really is to just let them be kids. Decide which “kid” things you can tolerate. Right now, for me and my tween, I can tolerate mismatched clothes much more than I can handle tangled, scraggly hair. That’s a battle I will fight everyday if I have to. Cookie Monster fleece? No, big deal!

How do you do with picking your battles? Do you do well to look past the “kid” things? Or, is everything a battleground for you?

Linking up at these parties: Titus 2