I would NEVER... Have you EVER?

When I was young (and dumb :), I had this vision of the kind of mom I would be. I would be THE perfect mom, of course. Stylish, fun, always up on current events and trends, well-read, always on time, bread-baking, kids all clean and lined up nicely, you know the kind of mom I'm talking about (that doesn't actually exist). Well, along came my first child, and reality set in. It's harder than it looks. By the time my second child was a few months old, I had broken almost every rule that I had set for myself. My new rule: NEVER say never! Now when I hear pregnant first-time moms talk about all of the perfect things that they are going to do, I just laugh a little and hope that they aren't too hard on themselves when it doesn't work out exactly as they had planned. We all go into this motherhood thing without a CLUE (regardless of how many books we read, trust me, I read every book and I thought I knew it all until I held my newborn daughter in my arms for the first time!). Here is my list of top 10 things I thought I would never do:

10. Use the TV as a babysitter (it's not often, but laundry HAS to be done sometime!)

9. Allow my child to go in pulic wearing a tutu and oversized princess shoes (or a batman cape :)

8. Be the always-late constantly apologizing mom (yes, I use my kids as excuses)

7. Develop selective hearing - I am apparantly immune to my own name when repeated over and over... mom? mommmm? MOM!? MOMMMMM!

6. Wear my sweats to pick up my child from preschool - at 3 pm

5. Use bribery - especially candy :) (I thought it was always possible to use reason and logic... and it is, but it's sometimes much faster to use bribery)

4. Pretend that I don't know when my kids are in my room coloring on the walls - at least it buys me a few extra minutes of peace and quiet, and it's nothing a Mr. Clean Eraser won't fix ;)

3. Wipe my child's nose with the shirt they are wearing (you know you have done it!)

2. Use the phrase "because I said so"

1. Follow the above phrase with the phrase "because I'm the Mom, that's why!" (I always thought I would be more patient and explain everything to my little children, that was before I had a 2 and 4-year-old who respond to every logical answer with yet another "WHY?" AHHH!)

Okay, so those are my true confessions of a real-life mom, now it's time to spill yours! What do you do that you SWORE you would NEVER do as a mom? Please comment!