Troop Mom

Growing up, I was in Girl Scouts proudly collecting badges from Daisy Scouts all the way through to my Silver award (admittedly I was pretty much way over being in Girl Scouts by this age). There was something so exciting about getting your big ‘book of badges’, reading the requirements and planning out the plan of attack to earn such honorary badges like “Humans and Habitats”, “ Being My Best” and “Caring for Children”

Ironically, my life has seem to come full circle as I find myself moving through motherhood, feeling as though I am collecting ‘motherhood badges’. There aren’t any specific requirements per se to earn these badges, and there certainly aren’t any books listing them out as each Mom collects her own badges.

I don’t have Troop Number or a fancy sash to sew my badges on. But I am collecting them. Mentally. And they aren’t for anyone else but a little feather in my motherhood confidence. A nod to the fact that I am doing this. And maybe I don’t have a troop of friends, but I certainly have a troop of fellow Moms who are earning their own badges.

This Friday I felt like I earned the “Handle Baby Vomit in the Middle of the Night” badge. Which was quickly followed by the “Break a 104 degree fever as quickly as possible” badge. (I'd like to see the stitching design on the patch for those 2).  Neither were quite as glamorous as “Food Power” or “Lead On Model Citizen”, but I would argue they are more important. At least to me.

The thing is, it seems like as a Mom you are faced with a slice of uncertainty almost every day. “Why didn’t Matilda eat today?”, “How do we get her to quit biting shoes?”, “Did she wake up crying for 3 hours last night because she was sick or because she is needy”? (the answer to the last question was sick—ear infection, which I TOTALLY called at 3AM—mentally sewing on the Mother’s Intuition badge..).

And all of the uncertainty can drive a person crazy. And so these imaginary awards are a little nod from myself to myself that I am competent. I am not screwing this up (or if I am it isn’t on a gigantic scale yet). And I will continue to collect.

And hopefully the collections will be even more fun in years to come—like instead of the “First blow-out in a public space badge” it will be “teach Matilda how to drive” and “help Matilda pick out the perfect prom dress.”

So my fellow Mom friends, what badges have you collected recently?