Moms Are Grateful for This Woman's List of Parenting Fails on Facebook

Once you have a kid, you may have to act even more like a grownup, but it's not like you're suddenly immune from making mistakes. A mom of three named Jennifer Campbell, who runs the site Mama Lion Strong, recently shared some of her biggest ones in a Facebook post that's going viral. 

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Campbell wrote about how she was breastfeeding her newborn while her older kids played in their gated backyard. "I didn't even have time to cover myself before a woman came around the corner, a look of fury on her face and my two year old on her hip," she said. "She started yelling the second she saw me. 'Do you know where I just found your child?'"

The woman told Campbell that the woman had found her son out on a busy road where he could have been hit by a car. Campbell wrote that in the aftermath of the incident, "I cried of course. It makes you sick to think that something serious could happen to your child, especially in YOUR care. It's called an accident. And despite an accident being an accident, mother's will still blame themselves for it and carry the guilt for life."

She went on to recall several other accidents, like "my oldest son fell in the backyard and split his head open," "our middle son (clearly the escape artist) was found wandering around outside in boots and a t-shirt in -20C/-4F weather," "we were in a busy downtown area and I lost my oldest son. He just biked away from us," and "my youngest (now two) had a butcher knife in his hands and was trying to cut a block of cheese on the floor."

The bottom line, as far as Campbell's concerned, is that "accidents happen, and when they do people need love and compassion, not lectures and blame.​ ... Be kind, gentle, and compassionate in your thoughts and conversations about this. We are all just perfectly imperfect humans, trying our best out here."

Many commenters responded by telling Campbell how grateful they are for her candor. "I feel less alone as an 'imperfect' parent when I read your truths​," wrote a woman named Stephanie Small. Another woman named Renee Olsen said, "THANK YOU! It is rare to hear this type of honesty. It reminds me that I'm human and speaks to me on more levels than one."

The post has been shared more than 10,000 times.

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