{The author, contemplating her outfit choice at an audition.}

Guest blogger, mama-extraordinaire and bridesmaid of the #TONANNIEwedding Barbara King is back with the latest edition of her series on motherhood in Los Angeles! This week’s topic: The 1,570,642 choices and decisions a mom is faced with on a daily basis…

Grande Vanilla Latte or Banana Kale Smoothie? Take the job in New York or stay in Dallas? Re-runs of The Walking Dead or pop in a Redbox? Some choices we make are easier than others, and some more important, but they are all choices nonetheless. I think I remember reading somewhere that humans make TENS of THOUSANDS of decisions every single day. That’s like…a lot.

Now when you’re a mom, these SEVERAL THOUSAND decisions that you’re faced with can seem beyond daunting. You’re already overwhelmed with the task of keeping a tiny human being alive. You’re also probably (hopefully) making sure this tiny human turns out to be a somewhat decent larger human in the future. And you are doing all this after getting only three hours of sleep last night because Kid 1 has an ear infection, Kid 2 is teething, and you obviously had to watch the last 3 episodes of Making a Murderer. And you’re covered in baby pee.

{Just a small percentage of my notebooks filled with lists. I keep them all because I’m a total weirdo.}

Although I’ve always been an over-thinker, (making meticulous lists and detailed diagrams to analyze my choices,) being a mom has made me an OVER-over-thinker.  Choosing which baby monitor to register for (sound-only or sound-and-video or super-fancy-breathing-detector,) took me WEEKS. Choosing which flight to take to Nashville wasted so much of my time the prices of the flights went up $150 per ticket in the meantime.

{The kids and me on our overpriced flight to Nashville.}

Here are a couple of PAINSTAKING decisions I made yesterday:

Sky blue or lilac for my 4-year old’s leotard? (Sky blue.)

405 or Sepulveda? It’s 4:30pm. (NEITHER. Stay home and drink wine.)

Peanut Butter Cookie or Red Velvet Cupcake? (BOTH duh.)

Does a red t-shirt with a yellow sweater seem too casual? (No one cares.)

Who comes after my cousin for an emergency contact on my daughter’s school application? (The Cavaleros of course!)

Paris or the Loire Valley this summer? (My wallet is still laughing.)

I used to think that the extensive time I spent researching and analyzing my choices would make my final decision better. And even if it didn’t turn out as planned, at least I knew that I put all that time and energy “trying” to make the right decision. But the interesting thing I’ve come to realize is that most of these particular decisions really don’t matter. I no longer want to waste my time choosing anything aside from choosing to spend time with my kids. And furthermore, when I look back at the “best” decisions I’ve made in my life – they came naturally – there were never lists, never doubts, so they hardly seemed like decisions at all. They just were.

In fact, there are a few key non-decisions I made that really helped shape me as a mom. They also had a direct impact on how awesome my children are. For example: a class I chose to take, (RIE – it’s amazing;) travel with kids (20+ flights and 4 countries so far;) our preschool (French;) and my ladies (who are making the same thousands of decisions every day, and maybe even more I didn’t even KNOW I needed to worry about.) Each deserves a blog post of its own, but in the meantime I need to make the choice between emptying the dishwasher or watching Real Housewives of Beverly Hills… Like I said, some decisions are easier than others.

Barbara King-Wilson is an actress and writer living with her family in Los Angeles. Follow her @TheBarbaraKing and visit her at www.barbaraking.com! For past posts by Barbara, get over here, here and here!