I received this sweet email from a reader:

“Taylor,

We haven’t met, but this thanksgiving I am thankful for you!  I am a regular reader of Supermom (best part of a Monday) and now your “best life ever” blog on the herald site. I am a mother of 2 sweet little boys (ages 3 and 2) who remind me every day to be present   and live in the moment. The other “stuff” (cooking, cleaning, laundry, paying bills, etc) will get done too, but what really matters is enjoying the company of those you love and not taking a single minute for granted. I am so grateful for my health and the health and happiness of those I love. Some days are easier than others, but thanks to your writing, when I need a little “mommy time out” you are always there with a positive uplifting message. As you have said (I think it was u!) feeling peaceful is a skill and I am able to practice that skill by reading your words every day. So thank you for being you and spreading your light. It is much appreciated by people like me who have never met u but feel like we know u because we connect with your message. Keep it coming sista!

Lots of love to u and ur “plus 5″

Namaste!”

First off, I gotta say that reading this email brought tears to my eyes, because THIS is why I write.  Period.

So much gratitude to and for you, Sister, and your thoughtful and heart-felt words.

Next, I gotta say, if I may so bold to do so (and you KNOW I am and will be—LOL), that it’s OK and so normal and on the path of a SUPERMOM to sometimes look the other way when your adorable and perfect and wonderful and amazing and legendary in every way toddler or wee one is doing something and wants you to look and be present, but ya just gotta get something done in that moment (gasp!).

Oh girl, yeah, it’s not only OK…it’s actually good!  (I’m sayin “girl” to all of you reading this–not just the reader who wrote me).

I now have five kids, spanning ages 1-14 and so I can SEE with my own two eyes that my 14-year-old don’t remember all the moments that I hadda get something done but didn’t (and stayed up late that night after she went to sleep to do so instead) because I had to be the “perfect” Mom (as many a Supermom gasps because because she knows there ain’t no such thing.)

I tried so hard to do it all “right” and be “perfect” for my little girl, and so I wanna help some of you first time Supermoms out there to not be so damn hard on yo-selves, as I was on myself.

Your kiddo will be just FINE, if you take that call, cook that meal, do that load of laundry, type that email, sit down for a sec and rest yo weary feet.

IN FACT, I will argue that your child will be even happier and more grounded and better suited to do his or her thang in this big world of ours, learning that he or she needs to wait sometimes.  That it ain’t ALWAYS 100% totally and completely about him or her.     We can all be do and have whatever we want, but there’s a path, and sometimes it don’t happen in EXACTLY the way we wanted it to and/or envisioned it.  And that’s OK.

Now I DIDN’T teach this to my first-born, until her little sister Sagey was born (and my first-born was then six and a half).  At that point I was nursing or changing a diap or whatever and just COULDN’T play princesses with her at that very moment.  It’s just the way it was.  When I could, I was absolutely present with her and enjoyed her amazing presence, and am to this day—with all of my plus 5.  But there are times when it just ain’t the path.  It just ain’t possible.  This is real life.  This is the path.  And it’s OK.

Now I notice that my lovely fourteen year old (first-born child) sometimes STILL wants ALL the attention, even though we now have five kiddos, including twin 19 month olds.  This could be because she’s a teen or it could be, well, that I TRAINED her to be that way.    I joke with her about this sometimes.  I say, “Do you remember that time when I schlepped you to the Swan Boats when it was wicked hot out and we did the whole Boston thing and the Make Way for Ducklings thing and then got lunch and then ice cream and then played in the park?  “No Mom,” she replies quickly, “But can you drive me to the mall?”

So relax Supermoms.  Yes, what you do matters.  It does it does it does.  So much.  But don’t try to be perfect and don’t’ beat yo-selves up.  Please.  You gonna teach your brood so much more by bein real and honest and loving and kind and calm and patient and makin mistakes and beginning again and laughing and smiling and sometimes sayin, “Sorry hon, I can’t look right now or I can’t play right now or I can’t make you a snack this red hot minute… because I just have to do this.  Please wait your turn.”

And still your amazingly wonderful child will be just that, amazingly wonderful.