Real Mom Life: Imperfect, Honest, and Totally Fine

Elizabeth Santos

Aug 12

4 min read

If you’re looking for a mom who wakes up at 5 a.m., drinks a green smoothie, works out, meal preps seven days of perfectly balanced meals, never loses her patience, and somehow has a spotless house before everyone else wakes up...

You are definitely in the wrong place. 😂

Welcome to The Mom Hustle Edit.

I’m a single boy mom trying to balance a full-time career, school, sports, bills, appointments, homework, practices, dinner, laundry, deadlines, and approximately 7,492 other things at any given moment.

And somewhere on that never-ending to-do list, I’m also supposed to remember to take care of myself.

Bruh, as my son calls me.

Why I Started The Mom Hustle Edit

I wanted to create a space that actually feels like real life.

Social media can make motherhood look so put together. The organized refrigerator. The perfectly labeled pantry. The meal-prep containers lined up beautifully. The spotless house. The smiling kids. The mom who somehow has her hair done, makeup on, and an iced coffee that hasn't been reheated three times.

Meanwhile, some of us are wondering whether the laundry in the basket is clean or dirty.

I wanted something different.

Here, we’re talking about the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between.

There will be good days when I feel like I absolutely crushed it.

There will be days when I’m sitting in the car wondering how I’m supposed to get everything done.

And there will probably be days when dinner is whatever I can pull together because sports ran late and nobody remembered to take anything out of the freezer.

That’s life.

And I’m not going to make it cute just for the internet.

Single Mom. Full Heart. Very Full Calendar.

Being a single mom means there are a lot of moving pieces, and most of the time, I’m the person responsible for keeping those pieces moving.

I work full time. I go to school. I’m raising a boy. I’m running from one commitment to another. I’m figuring out meals, schedules, homework, work deadlines, household responsibilities, and everything else that comes with being the person everyone depends on.

I love being a mom more than anything.

But loving motherhood doesn't mean every part of it is easy.

And I think we should be able to say that.

We’re Going to Talk About Mental Health, Too

This is a big one for me.

We talk so much about everything moms need to do for everyone else, but not nearly enough about what happens when Mom is exhausted.

The mental load is real.

Burnout is real.

Mom guilt is real.

Feeling overwhelmed while simultaneously feeling guilty because you should be grateful is real.

And needing time away from everyone—even the people you love more than anything—is real too.

I want The Mom Hustle Edit to be a place where we can talk about those things without pretending we have everything figured out.

I'm also learning to make room for mom time.

Not grocery shopping alone.

Not sitting in the car during practice answering emails.

Not folding laundry while watching Netflix.

Actual time for me.

I'm still figuring that one out, so we'll probably figure it out together.

If I Tell You to Buy It, There’s a Reason

I love online shopping.

There. I said it. 😂

But I don't want this to become one of those spaces where everything is suddenly an

OMG YOU NEED THIS product.

No, we don't.

If I share something I bought, I want to tell you whether it actually worked, whether it made my life easier, whether it was worth the money, and—just as importantly—when something was a complete waste.

If it's great, I'll tell you.

If it's terrible, I'll tell you that too.

If there's a cheaper option that works just as well, we're going with the cheaper option.

Because this is real life and real money.

Meal Prep...or Whatever We're Calling Dinner This Week

We'll talk food too.

I'm always looking for ways to make meals easier, especially when the week is packed

with work, school, sports, and everything else.

Sometimes that means meal prepping.

Sometimes it's a slow-cooker dinner that saves the day.

Sometimes it's finding something the entire family will actually eat without someone looking at their plate like I've personally offended them.

And sometimes?

We're picking something up.

No guilt.

The goal isn't perfection. The goal is figuring out what makes our lives a little easier.

I'm Keeping It 100% Real

That's probably the biggest thing I want you to know about this blog.

I'm not here to pretend I have it all together.

I'm not going to sugarcoat motherhood.

I'm not going to pretend something worked when it didn't.

I'm not going to tell you every difficult situation taught me a beautiful life lesson.

Sometimes things suck.

Sometimes we're tired.

Sometimes our kids drive us crazy.

Sometimes we need a break.

Sometimes we spend money on ourselves.

Sometimes the laundry stays in the basket.

Sometimes we absolutely crush the day.

And sometimes simply getting everyone fed, where they need to be, and into bed

counts as a win.

So, Welcome ❤️

If you're a mom trying to balance a career, kids, sports, relationships, school, mental health, a household, your own goals—or some combination of all of it—I hope you find something here that makes you laugh, helps you feel understood, saves you some time, or simply reminds you that you're not the only one figuring this out as you go.

We'll talk about motherhood, sports-mom life, mental health, mom time, meal prepping, things worth buying, things absolutely not worth buying, work, school, money, everyday chaos, and whatever else comes along.

No perfect-mom act.

No sugarcoating.

Just the good, the bad, the ugly, and all the “bruh” moments in between.