Because the Best Mom is a Happy Mom
Do you feel like you’re too nice?
One of my students called me out for that my first year of teaching.
In her very astute, wise little fifth grade voice she told me, “Mrs. Crohn, you are too nice”
But wait… don’t you want to be nice? Isn’t that something to aim for?
Kind yes. But nice…nice is taking on the full responsibility of other people’s feelings and adapting your behavior to make others happy.
That’s what I was doing when an 11-year-old called me out.
In the midst of this strange season of social distancing and change, money may well be a scary topic for you. Maybe you’re like my family and you’re working through a big loss of income due to the pandemic? Maybe overwhelm and anxiety define your money situation in this season of uncertainty? Maybe you’ve decided to keep your head down and eyes closed, playing the “if I don’t look at it, then it can’t be real game” that our kids played when they were little?
A “D” in Science. My 7th-grade son had a “D” in Science!
This was out of character for him because Science is his favorite subject.
As a mom, I put hobbies on the backburner.
I didn’t know I was doing it at the time. It wasn’t a conscious decision.
I hated doing chores as a kid. Did you?
I remember sitting in the bathroom for 10 minutes letting the shower run so it “sounded” like I was cleaning the bathroom. Oh, the choice words I would have for my kids if I caught them doing that!
I get a panic attack every time I open up Facebook. Well-meaning parents post activity after activity to do with your kids at home.
Some take massive amounts of set up.
Others take enormous time.
Is this what I’m supposed to do when my kids are schooling from home? Is this my duty as a parent to set up these structured school days, intricate lessons and devote most of my waking hours to my kids education?
Nope. Flat out no.
How much do you do for everyone else?
A lot, yes?
But you say, that’s the nature of being a mom. You’re always doing stuff for everyone else and then there’s no time for yourself.
Ok, blunt question.
Do you struggle with anger and anxiety?
“Hangry” is a REAL thing. So is the “witching hour”.
Not only have we all seen a child throw themselves on the floor or stomp off for what seems like the silliest, most minute things but we ourselves, have been known to fly off the handle (or as I like to say “flip our lid”) over something so small and trivial.
Then we hear that voice in our head say to us “What the bejeezus just happened? Why did you yell about that?!”.
I will tell you why…because someone in that scenario was feeling out of whack and lost their cool.
Do you secretly watch those “memories” videos, photos, or old posts that pop up on your phone?
If you don’t do it in secret, then you probably don’t have a moody tween or teen in your home currently.
I miss those days. Currently, I have two kids on the verge of becoming teens and both are flexing their “attitude muscles” every-single-day!
I’m going to be blunt.
Right now, your child’s homework time just plain sucks.
It does.
You dread it every night. “Hey, have you done your math homework yet?
“NO! I can’t do my homework. I don’t want to do it yet. Can’t I watch TV? I’ll do it after dinner.”
So much back and forth and back and forth. It’s become too much.
The question is, how do you make your child want to do homework?
How do you make homework less boring?
