Vote for your favourite SA Mom blog post of 2015

Here they are: the finalists in our SA Mom blog best post competition. If you are a blogger, you can vote for your favourite post to win a blog makeover from Blogelina. Please do not take to social media to garner votes – the whole idea is that you receive votes from your peers, not your friends.

Without further ado, here are the finalists:

1. I die a little inside by Penelope and Bella

You see, you don’t know this world like I do. You’re only just getting the gist of actions & consequences, of decisions and outcomes. You don’t know, and I mean REALLY know why we say don’t talk to strangers, do you? Or why we tell you to wear sunscreen. Or save money. Or learn hard for your exams.

And you have no idea how it bugs me that I can’t control this. I realise this makes me sound like a control freak, but every time I say goodbye to you I die a little inside. The goodbyes get easier for you because you’re growing up. But they get harder for me because I leave you in the hands of the universe.

Every time you ride your bicycle to a friend’s house I die a little inside. I wonder who you’ll meet along your way. But I need to let you go on your own. It’s part of growing up.

2. Advice from a reformed cheater by Ferocious Haven

This is advice from a reformed cheater: the grass is not always greener on the other side and it’s usually just infatuation because you feel neglected by your partner. Cheating is never the best solution because it mostly happens when you are at your lowest and feeling unloved. Feeling unloved is never a good reason to cheat because at the end you will be the fool who left something not so broken, for something that looked like gold but it was really just a tin.

3. Confessions of an angry Mommy by Surviving the Madness

I’m the adult, I should have more control over my reactions than a 2-year-old. I’m trying to be more mindful of my short temper and my reactions. I’m trying to speak calmly even though I may not feel it. To not be angry about the lotion on the sheets. To not lose it when I’ve asked him not to hit the blinds for the 500th time in a row and he’s purely being defiant.

It’s hard. I’m not going to succeed every day. But today showed me that it is possible to be a calmer mommy. And if I can be that at least 80% of the time then hopefully I won’t mess this kid up.

4. 5 Things I want my boys to know on Mother’s Day by Kona Brown

 As a mom, the biggest thing I need from my kids is grace and forgiveness. Not just today, as I fumble through, mess up, freak out when I should be leaning in, yell, storm and stumble. But all the way to “one day”, in their adult hoods, when my failings will be so plain to see and when they will be tempted, as I have been, to blame me. Because as Jerry Bridges said in his book The Discipline of Grace: “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” I pray I can teach them to live that out as I also view grace and forgiveness as something they need from me, because in the end it’s faith and forgiveness that holds families together, not moms and not favorable circumstances.

5. Why would you hire a birth photographer? by the Milk Memoirs

This post was selected for its photography, which is also an important part of blogging.

Select your favourite post by completing the form. We will accept entries for one week.

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This competition is now closed. The winner was Kona Brown, closely followed by Surviving the Madness. Thank you to all who entered.