Ivana Poku Being a modern parent can feel hard.
Not because our kids are bad, but because the world has changed.
A modern parent often equals a perfect parent.
Or the pressure to be one.
I remember being a kid myself – I’d go out and play with my friends until my mum had to come chase me home.
No parents standing nearby watching.
We were raised to be independent. We’d explore, make mess, get dirty, eat junk, taste, try, mess up, go on wild adventures, travel in the boot of the car with three other kids… and we had the best time ever.
Try that now as a parent and you could end up in legal trouble.
I mean…. We’re told to entertain our kids 24/7 and wrap them in wool. We are told how to parent, what to say, when to say it, which words to use, how to discipline, how not to discipline, what to feed them, how to raise them, how to teach them, what feelings to feel and let feel, what boundaries to set… and when we don’t folllow the manual, we are look down on.
I’m not talking about about educating yourself or asking for support when you need it. Support is everything.
I’m talking about the fact we are bombarded from each direction with rules, opntions, and pressure – all neatly wrapped in the shiny packaging of “well-meaning help.”
Advice onw how to do things “right.” To get it “perfect.”
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To be perect parents raising perfect kids in a perfect house with perfect meals and perfectly balanced emotions.
And now? There’s an artificial womb. Developed and tested. Which is amazing and terrifying at the same time. Becasue surely, if we can create an artifical womb, how far off are we from creating artificial people? Perfect parents?
Remember the movie Stepford Wives?
I rememerb thinking how surreal the idea was when I saw it years ago.
Now I’m terrified it might actually happen.
If we don’t stop obsessing over perfection, sooner or later, we will be replaced.
Not by AI,
But by the version of ourselves we’re trying to turn into: emotionless, polished, robotic.
Don’t get me erong, AI is not the enemy.
I think it’s a brilliant tool if we use it wisely.
But in a world obsessed with perfection, and it the hand of wrong people, it could destroy what makes us human.
So here’s my plea:
Embrace the imperfection. Embrace the humanity. Embrace the chaos. Embrace the you who forgets things, cries in the car, loses it sometimes, and still shows up anyway.
Talk about your real feelings. Talk about your mistakes. Own them. Not just for you – but to give permission to the mum next to you to do the same.
Yes, people may judge you.
But the truth, people judge anyway – so you might as well be real.
Post the messy stuff on Instagram. Drop the filters. Drop the “I’ve got it all together” vibe that we hide behind, even when pretending to be “raw.”
Because that realness? That’s what makes you irreplaceable.
That’s what makes you human. That’s what makes us survive.
Not perfection, but truth.
And the more we show it, the more we protect it.
And here’s the thing – we don’t just owe it to ourselves to embrace it.
We owe it to our kids.
Because the more we model real, flawed, emotionally honest parenting…. the more permission they have to grow up as themselves – not versions of who the world wants them to be.
Let’s raise children who don’t fear mistakes. Who know that meltdowns are part of being human. Who believe that being good enough is enough. Who’ve seen first-hand that love doesn’t come from being a “perfect parent”. It comes from emotional presence.
Let’s raise children who don’t grow up terrified to show up as they are.
The world doesn’t need more people who are good at pretending.
It needs more people who are brave enough to be seen for who they really are.
And that starts with us.
So this week, let something drop.
Order takeaway. Cry when you need to. Laugh when you mess it up. Say “I don’t know” in front of your child.
Tell another mum, “I had a sh*t day today,” and mean it.
You are a wonderful mum.
Not when you get it perfect.
But especially when you don’t.
With love,
Ivana x
