'Lighten Up" Mom!

Confession # 3   Sometimes I Need To "Lighten Up" as a Mom!

My husband always tells me in jest that he would never have to hit me because I kick my own tail constantly.  Funny, but true!  I have always been very hard on myself and I am not sure why? Maybe it was my desire to please my dad when I was a young child.  Or maybe it was birthed from decades of being overweight and obese and thinking if I were perfect in other ways, that maybe people would not judge me based on my physical appearance.  Regardless of why I am so hard on myself, I notice that at times I have allowed that to run over into how I raise my two daughters. Can u relate?

As a child, I did not do a lot of playing and laughing like other children.  Do not get me wrong, I had great parents, it’s just that my dad, particularly, was very strict, structured and controlling in many ways.  Mom was very laid back and allowed us more leeway to be kids than my dad, but I do not hold that against him at all.  He did the best he knew how to do and he only raised us how he was raised.  Which leads me to know that I do not want to raise my children as intense as I was raised?   

I hate to admit it, but, like I am too hard on myself, and take myself way too seriously, I have been doing the same with my girls.  Now that I am aware, I am taking steps to improve.  For one, I simply try to sit down, relax and not freak out over the little things.  May sound easy for you, but majorly hard for me.  Being a type A personality with a touch of perfectionism, I like things done a certain way……ok, my way! 
But, I want Aunna and Lillian Grace to simply be kids and love their childhood.  Life will try to make them too serious and stressed soon enough.  Before I know it, my girls will be teens and doing their own thing.  So will it really kill me to sit and watch ANOTHER episode of Sofia the First on Disney with the children rather than vacuum?  Will time stand still if I simply let Aunna express her 5 year old feelings and then we discuss it, rather than tell her to hush her mouth?

The bottom line to my confession is because of how strict and staunch I was raised, I have been doing the same to my girls and I am working like crazy to change.   What are you working hard at changing with your child rearing?  

Confessions of a mommy,
Angela

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