You know the family that lives across the street … the one with the perfect kids, perfect marriage, and perfect life? Yeah, that doesn’t really exist.

There are a lot of moms and dads out there struggling today with perfection. They want to be perfect parents and have perfect kids. But those expectations don’t sound very realistic to me.

Here’s what I’ve learned from my experience: trying to create the appearance of perfection doesn’t solve problems—it causes them. It was when Jan and I stopped trying to perfect one another that our marriage actually got better!

Put that “perfection” dream back on the shelf, and focus instead on nurturing a deep, meaningful—and perhaps a bit messy—relationship with your child and spouse.

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