NObody said it would be easy and being a Mom is definitely not for the faint of heart. From jam packed schedules to almond butter and jam sandwiches and everything in between we are busy and we are stressed. A survey came out this week about Moms and our stressors. When 7,000 moms were asked who stressed them out the most, 75% percent of them said..... themselves. I can't say that I am surprised. We are so stinkin' hard on ourselves. From Pinterest craft envy to perfectly clean house envy it just always seems like we are comparing ourselves to other Mothers and that is just not a nice thing to do to ourselves. We associate being the "perfect" Mom with almost any other Mom but ourselves. That's just exhausting, right?! We just need to give ourselves some GRACE and remember there are no "perfect" Moms... anywhere. We are all flawed because that is the way God made us. Some of us yell at our kids, some of us let the house get messy, some of us make ugly faces at our kids when they turn around...or so I've heard. ;) The point is if we spend less time thinking about what we are not and more time focusing on are strengths and what we thrive at doing soooo many things would probably change in our lives. Stress is linked to heart disease, asthma, obesity, diabetes, migraines, depression and anxiety, gastrointestinal problems, Alzheimer's Disease, ACCELERATED AGING, oh and premature death. Just to name a few. Yikes!! Aging faster alone convinces me. ;)
Two other ways we stress ourselves out is with our pride and our desperate need to control circumstances that frankly aren't ours to control. The pride comes in when we don't ask for help when we so obviously need it. Like when we are sick on our deathbed after taking care of sick kiddos for a week and someone offers to bring us food and we say no because we don't want to be an inconvenience to them. Uh hello, it takes a village people. ;) No but seriously in many countries extended families actually dwell together and have very active rolls in eachothers lives. Nowadays we are lucky to live in the same state with our families. So accept the help and if you still feel like an inconvenience just remenber that a lot of people genuinely LOVE to do favors for others and if you don't accept it for yourselves accept it for them. :) BTW I struggle with this one big time. :/
And then there is control... The evidence is in the art projects our kids bring in to school. (GUILTY!!) Sure my 4 year old Modpodged this float for the parade, can't you tell?! ;) Relinquish control Moms, the art crafts will only get better if we let them do it themselves. Not to mention, I have a friend who recently told me her 4th grade son, who did his own art project BTW, got a terrible grade on it, so she decided to call the teacher because it was really good for a 4th grader. She discussed with the teacher how it was very apperent that many of the Moms had obviously taken over the project and asked if she was possibly comparing his to those projects and if that was why he got the bad grade. The teacher admitted that that was exactly what happened and that she never stopped to think that some of the Moms were doing the projects for the kids and she said that now that she was thinking about it she was surprised she never realized it before and then she raised his grade. Imagine how many other moms in this situation that didn't know that is why there kiddo got the bad grade. :(
Lesson learned on this end.
So in conclusion stop beating yourself up, you're an amzing Mom!!! You do more things in one day than some people who are not Mommies do in a week, heck a month!! Accept help, you are only human. Drop the pride and take the Grace. :)
Blessings,
Katie
LOVE!! Keep 'em coming!! ;)
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