Lately Alexis has developed an Attitude. Notice the capitol A. She's been rude, grumpy and just downright mean. If you heard her you might be a bit confused and maybe think you've entered an all girls high school or something, that's how much attitude she's packing in that tiny little body. I've tried things to adjust it, but so far I don't seem to have even made a dent in the problem, so I finally concluded that I'm doing something wrong. Duh, right? I mean, kids don't just act like that for no reason. So while pondering on what I'm doing wrong, I've realized that lately I've only been a GOOD mom, which is not what I want to be. I want to be a GREAT mom (well really, a SUPERB mom but I think that takes a lot more practice). I used to be a GREAT mom, but I've gotten lazy lately. Sure, I feed my kids. I keep them clean. I play occasional games with them and read stories to them. I encourage them to play nicely together, and I take them to places they would enjoy. But really, anyone could do that. I haven't been going above and beyond like a GREAT mom would and doing the things only their mom can do. I haven't been fully present in all our conversations (have you met Alexis?? She talks A LOT!) I haven't been sympathetic enough to their complaints and sorrows. I haven't taught them something new in awhile, and I most definitely haven't praised them enough. And I really haven't snuggled with them before bed enough.
So I've made a mental list of things that I need to do to try and get back to that GREAT mom status. And I start TODAY. But also, I need to not be so hard on myself, so here's what GREAT mom things I've done today.
1. I did our 20 min. of reading so Alexis can earn a prize from the library. And, the real reason, so she can learn to LOVE reading like I do.
2. Instead of getting frustrated with Tyler for not eating all his lunch, I sat down and helped him eat it.
Also, I did the dishes, but that's not so much in the "mom" category as it is in the "housewife" category. But still, for me, it's awesome.
What GREAT mom things have you done lately? And if you aren't a mom, what GREAT dad/spouse/sister/brother/son/daughter/friend thing have you done lately? If you're too humble to toot your own horn, leave it anonymously.
6 comments:
Good for you!! I think you're a great mom already, but it always feels nice to remotivate yourself in areas you feel you're not doing as well as you could. I'm very impressed. I'm sure it will help Alexis' little attitude blip.
One thing I did the other day was compile a list of all my family and friend's birthdays. I have vowed to send e-cards or real live mail cards to every person on that list this year. It will be hard, but I'm excited. I'm so bad at sending mail....
Giving more attention to Zac. Actually, wrestling around with him-I rarely do that. I stayed in his room the other night after prayers and a song to just chat for a while. He loved it. It really does make a difference in his behavior.
I fed my boys really good food today. Lotza protein, grains, fruits, and dairy, so they can come out all big and strong. I kinda love that one of the perks of only having kids in utero is that eating is being a good mom.
I fed my kids crap today, so thats a strike against me. BUT, I did let them paint. Kolbe always wants to paint and I almost never say yes partly cause its kind of messy, but mostly because I don't want to deal with Jane painting. Anyway, today I decided why not, and paint we did. It wasn't as messy, or as hard to help jane as I thought. It was actually pretty fun. Go me.
I played Star Wars with Jake, instead of sending him to do it and figure it all out on his own. Although, I think I may have canceled that good deed out by getting frustrated with him during our game together...because he wouldn't let me go where I wanted to go. :(
Can I start over tomorrow?
I'm working on teaching Lucas the alphabet and now whenever he sees a sign as we're driving he yells "B's"...well at least I'm trying to teach him :)
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