Not That Mom

From the day our eldest arrived in this world, I’ve slowly come to realize I was out of synch with the majority of today’s mothers. It took a few years, but now I’m okay with that. What do I mean by this?

I’m not the Mom who carries around a first aid kit in her purse (although I do have one in the car now). Instead, I was the Mom who arrived at a free, local children’s performance with three kids in tow, one of which had fallen and scraped her knee at the entrance to the building. While I had things under control—it was a little scrap with a tiny bit of blood—and my daughter was calming down, literally three other moms offered Band-Aids (in cartoon characters, naturally!), to me for my daughter.

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’m not the Mom who plays with her children every day, or even every week. Sure, we do things together, and we have family game time once a week. But I don’t feel any compulsion to play with my kids on a regular basis. (See my article, “Playing With Your Children Can Be More Than Fun and Games” for more on this topic.)

I’m not the Mom who feels guilty for saying to a child, “Go away, you’re bothering me.” I know that kids need to entertain themselves, and that it’s okay for them to realize that I have my own duties and chores to attend.

I’m not the Mom whose whole world revolves around my children. Don’t get me wrong—I love my children!—but I also love my husband. And I enjoy my hobbies and outside interests, too.

I’m not the Mom who wants to be overly involved in my child’s schooling. That’s their calling to be good, diligent students. It’s not mine to oversee their homework, to remind them of project deadlines, or to bring forgotten items to school.

I’m not the Mom who cares overmuch what others think of my parenting. I’m more focused on how my parenting is impacting my children—not whether other parents think of my methods or philosophy.

I’m not the Mom who focuses on the short term. I’m more concerned with what my child will be at age 30 than whether or not he’ll make the traveling soccer team. I nip behavior in the bud to avoid dealing with a bigger problem down the road.

I’m not the Mom who takes children way to seriously. Raising kids should be taken seriously, but kids themselves? Nah, they’re way to silly and illogical to be taken with more than a grain of salt.

What kind of Mom are you?

Until next time,

Sarah