It’s safe to say Joanna Gaines feels stretched sometimes. The Fixer Upper alum shares five kids with her husband, Chip Gaines — the youngest is just 5-months-old — and she’s running a retail empire.
“I know at times it can be hard to connect with your kids. Especially in the tired and the hard and busy times in life,” the Magnolia Market cofounder, 40, wrote in a Sunday, November 4, Instagram post.
Joanna then shared a story about a special morning in the family garden with her daughter Emmie Kay, 8. “I just followed along in her imaginations and curiosities (in all honesty I was too tired to come up with anything because mama and Crew haven’t been sleeping great these days),” the HGTV personality revealed in her post. “She told me she wanted to pick flowers and put them in old books that only her and I would know about and then look for them later when we got older.”
Then, something unexpected happen. “One of the sweetest surprises for us both was when we opened up one of the books and found that someone else had done the same thing with pretty leaves many years ago,” Joanna shared. “It reinforced how we would feel when we find these flowers again one day.”
The Magnolia Table cookbook author explained the story was directed at those who experience mom guilt. “I promise you that’s a never ending cycle that leads to nowhere,” Joanna wrote. “Replace the word guilt with grace. Look for grace in the moments, the small wins that lead to the greatest investments in their hearts.” She then urged parents to be kinder to themselves.
“Don’t spend another second focusing on failure,” Joanna mused. “Instead use whatever time and whatever energy you have and look for the moments where grace can be found.”
The designer’s message received nearly 13,000 comments from grateful fans. “I needed this,” wrote one person. Added another: “I’ve bookmarked for when I need the reminder (often and always).”
