Listen up, world. Sometimes it's completely acceptable to cry over spilled milk. Like on a long, exhausting day, or if you just pumped 6 oz of liquid gold. Go head and cry, Mama.
Humor Parenting

5 Reasons It’s Totally Okay to Cry Over Spilled Milk

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Listen up, world. Sometimes it's completely acceptable to cry over spilled milk. Like on a long, exhausting day, or if you just pumped 6 oz of liquid gold. Go head and cry, Mama.

By Becca Carnahan of With Love, Becca

The saying goes, “there’s no use crying over spilled milk.” It’s not supposed to be taken literally. I get that. But I really think we need a better saying to illustrate that we shouldn’t be upset about little things that happened in the past. Sometimes spilled milk is kind of a big deal, and I have a list of five reasons why it’s fine to cry about it.

1. It’s Been A Day

Are there worse things that could happen at dinnertime? Of course. But if the morning was chaos, work was draining, daycare pick-up was a clown show, and dinner is admittedly kind of gross, the last thing you want to deal with is a spilled cup of milk. Particularly if the spilled milk was the result of “Stop blowing bubbles in your milk now. No, seriously now. I get that it’s fun but you need to listen. Dude, put your cup back on the table right now. Gahhhhh.”

It’s been a day. You don’t want to clean up that milk. It’s okay to cry.

2. The Day Has Barely Begun

Everyone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. And by “side of the bed,” I mean side of dawn. Very much the wrong side of dawn. So by 6:15 the day has barely begun, but you’ve been awake for what feels like 164 hours. You’ve wrangled children into clothes. You found something in your own closet that doesn’t require an iron and doesn’t have sequins on it. (Seriously, I’m in my 30s, why the sequins?)

You are about to walk out the door, and you step in a hidden puddle of forgotten milk. Which is decidedly worse then fresh spilled milk because it’s almost cheese. This makes you seriously question your own ability to clean your home. But you also have to leave right now or you’ll be late to work.

So everything smells, and everything is hard, and it’s okay to cry.

3. Liquid Gold

Pumping breast milk took more than the milk out of me; it took a little bit of my spirit. The machinery, the Madonna cones, the cleaning, the sterilizing, the storing. I get that breast milk is wonderful, absolutely. But I know I’m not alone in saying that pumping breast milk isn’t fun. And even if I’m totally alone in saying that, I could have really used an epidural for pumping. I’ll stand by it.

In any case, whether you pump like a champ or pump like me, every ounce of breast milk is important. Knocking over an open bottle of breast milk is like ripping up your paycheck at the end of the week. You worked so hard for it, and it’s gone. It’s been two years and I still get a little choked up thinking about one particular 3am pumping session.

Lost some of that liquid gold? It’s okay to cry.

4. Smoothie Sadness

Banana peeled. Strawberries sliced. Spinach begrudgingly added. This smoothie is your me-time. Your self-care. Your nutrition in a cup. You have a lot going on, breakfast is most often eaten on the go, and you’re relying too much on your multivitamin to keep the doctor away, so there is a lot riding on this smoothie.

In goes the banana, the strawberries, the spinach, and the ice. Then in goes the almond milk, and out goes the almond milk. Right through the bottom of the blender that you didn’t screw on properly. I can’t even put together a blender?? There are three parts… And how much almond milk did I put in here, 6 gallons? Why are there 6 gallons of almond milk on my floor?

Now I have to go and actually chew my spinach today. And honestly, according to my female health tracker app, it makes A LOT of sense that this was going to push me over the edge. So it’s okay to cry.

5. Milky Goodness

But then sometimes you’re completely wiped out. You’re burning the candle at both ends and holding the middle part over an open flame. Your legs have turned to goo, you have too much to do, and you’re too tired to come up with a third rhyme.

Your three-year-old accidentally spills his milk at dinner, and you let out a little sigh of, “I know that wasn’t on purpose, but I really don’t want to get up, and is it bedtime?” While you’re feeling sorry for yourself because you need to get a towel, your two-year-old is feeling sorry for her brother because he doesn’t have any more milk. So she picks up his cup and starts to try to pour her own milk into it.

Of course this ends up spilling more milk. But it also spills some happy tears, because whatever you have done wrong in the past week, you’ve clearly done something right. These kids are kind. That’s what matters. It’s okay to cry.

With a lot of words about milk for someone who is lactose intolerant,

Becca

This post was originally published on With Love, Becca.

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About the Author

Becca Carnahan is a mom of 2 small humans, freelance writer, career coach, and a humor enthusiast. Find her sharing stories about parenting and career development at With Love, Becca and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.