Thursday, July 12, 2012

A Good Mother

Elder M. Russell Ballard "Daughters of God," Ensign, May 2008, 108 

What a great talk by Elder Ballard. It is okay if we all parent differently, our kids are different! We are different!
Sometimes I think we beat ourselves up, or others, because we are not good at every aspect of raising our children, or keeping our home. 
A friend and I were talking about the show hoarders. It was funny because after she watched it, she did a huge deep cleaning in her house because she never wanted her house to be like that. After I watched it I gave myself a break that night because I thought, "I am doing okay, my house is good enough for today". The thing is....neither of these reactions were wrong. They are just different!
We all have different strengths...
maybe yours is keeping an organized house
maybe it is teaching your kids to read at a young age 
maybe it is playing outside with your kids instead of watching them play
 maybe it is encouraging them to be their best self
 maybe it is cooking healthy-natural meals
 or maybe it is finding creative things for them to do
 maybe it is teaching them the gospel
maybe it is to help your kids be independent

The point is that none of us are going to be perfect at all of the things a mother could be...not every kid needs all of the things a mother could do...hopefully we can enjoy being mothers and not feel the need to compare or look down at one another. 
I am grateful to all the great examples of mothers out there and hope I can be the best mom for my kids! I love my children and I am so thankful for the happiness they bring to me!

1 comment:

Lisa said...

Oh man, I think I kind of needed to hear that. I sometimes think I need to be that perfect Mom too and it's just too stressful. But I loved that quote because you are right, every kid is different and needs to be parented in ways that will benefit them and us. Man, I really like that quote a lot. Thanks for sharing that!