Vanessa Lachey Says No, You're Not "a Bad Parent"

TV personality Vanessa Lachey is rejecting the trope of the perfect mom. In an interview with People, Lachey said, “We all have fails daily and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent.”

The Top Chef Junior host added, “We all are constantly struggling daily, but that’s also the beautiful side of parenthood.”

Lachey recently partnered up with WaterWipes, which recently dropped This Is Parenthood, a new short global documentary about the challenges of raising kids — and the obstacles that aren’t always talked about in families or in the media.

“I have tons of fails. Probably daily fails that range from something as simple as missing the bus to school because I couldn’t get [the kids] together at the door,” she said, “to forgetting something that they were supposed to bring for their project at school, to snapping at a knee-jerk reaction and saying something you regret … [the fails] range.”

A survey sponsored by WaterWipes suggested that more than half (half!) of parents surveyed around the planet were certain they were failing their kids within the first 12 months of being parents. It’s worth noting (we think) that of that survey group, and those who felt they were failing, 45 percent were dads and 60 percent were mothers. Yup.

Lachey and husband, singer Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees, have three children, so she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to parenting. They share Phoenix, 2, Brooklyn, 4, and Camden, 6. And, yes, they are just as cute as you might imagine, with those genes. Looking at their family, we can almost forget about the whole Nick and Jessica Simpson era.

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We can relate to cuteness, but we can relate to the post-spring-break #mood even more:

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Lachey is speaking out against the “perfect parent” ideal because she believes it’s unattainable and only causes suffering.

“It’s a global issue, no matter what culture we’re in, no matter what economic background we have. We are all struggling with the same feeling of inadequacy as a parent. Failure is life, but it doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong,” she said.

Lachey continued, “We’re all human and we’re gonna constantly compare ourselves. We need to stop beating ourselves up as parents. … It’s the norm to not be so picture-perfect.”

Preach. And don’t stop, please.

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