09/13/2025
For those “never good enough” girlies out there, I got you! 🙋🏻♀️
Donald Winnicott, a pediatrician and psychoanalyst, coined this phrase in the 50’s to remind us: kids don’t need perfect parents. They need good enough ones. 🤯
Read that again…kids need good enough parents, not perfect ones!
What does this mean?
It means you’ll get it wrong sometimes. You’ll snap when you wish you hadn’t, forget the diaper bag, miss a cue. And that’s okay!!
In fact, Winnicott’s generous research shows that our “failures” can actually help our kids. When parents repair and reconnect after the inevitable mistakes, kids learn flexibility, resilience, and trust that relationships can withstand ruptures and imperfection.
😮💨 Phew that’s a huge relief!!
For us millennial parents who are juggling work, parenting, constant notifications, and the pressure of curated lives on social media, this is an important reminder:
📣Your child doesn’t need a highlight-reel version of you.
📣They need the real, “good enough” you. The you who shows up, tries, apologizes when needed, and keeps loving anyway.
📣Messy moments + repair = healthy attachment
So if you screwed up today, give yourself some grace. Being a “good enough” parent is more than enough. 👏🩷
