I feel like a rockstar mama in the small moments, the little victories.

Maybe I feel like a rockstar in the small moments because my children are 3 and 1.5, and it’s not like they are graduating from medical school or winning the Nobel Prize for poetry. Instead, I’m talking about the little things that only we notice. When your kid chooses to eat broccoli or when your grabby toddler says “please”.

My biggest small moment is preschool drop off. I dreaded preschool drop offs for months. Yes, months. Every Tuesday and Thursday I would troop my 3 year-old and his bewildered little brother out the front door, across town, and into preschool where the second I said goodbye, the world would turn upside down. He would scream, cry, chase me to the door, you name it.

And then, every day at pickup it was the same thing, “Yes he had his moment when you left, but after he got it out of his system, he snapped out of it and had the best day. He’s the happiest kid.” That part I knew. I knew he loved school. He talked about it nonstop. He taught us all the new songs he learned and talked about all the art projects he did. And every morning he’d get this big goofy smile on his face and ask me if it was a “preschool day”.

The dramatic drop offs finally stopped. And like most other challenges in parenting, there was no silver bullet. And now, for 10 minutes, three days a week, I feel like the most successful mom. When I tell my son goodbye and that I love him, and I walk out the door and he doesn’t lose his mind, my feet don’t touch the ground. We all need moments like this. We all HAVE moments like this. But sometimes they get forgotten or pushed aside. But these are the moments we need to lean into, these are the moments we need to hold at the forefront of our minds.

YES, my kids love broccoli. YES, my toddler says “please”. And YES, we don’t cry at preschool drop off anymore (usually). And for today, that’s enough.

That’s what I will hold to and remind myself of when the doubt begins to creep in. You have your small moment victories. Make them the most important moments.