More things I've learned since becoming a mom:
1. Few things bring me more joy than hearing Elliot spontaneously sing a song or hearing the boys laugh together.
2. Being a mom is a sanctifying process; my negative/unhealthy habits and tendencies are much more easily exposed, and I want to deal with them now so they aren't passed on to my boys.
3. Discipline is very difficult and not clear-cut.
4. What my catch phrases are because I hear them parroted back to me about 20 times a day: "you like that?", "ummm, okay", "mmmm, nope", "uh, sure", "dude", "you're crazy".
6. I'm not very patient, too quickly become angry, and far too often use a tone of voice that I immediately regret.
7. Being a mom of a 2 year old and a 1 year old can be lonely at times.
8. I need time away from my boys in order to be a good mom.
9. I notice little things like caterpillars, ants, spider webs, butterflies, airplanes, tractors, motorcycles, etc. much much more than I did before, and I love to point out these things to hear and see their reactions.
10. Time alone and peace and quiet are LUXURIOUS.
11. Laundry, dirty dishes, dirty floors, and toys strewn over the floor are commonplace and unending. Someone once told me that a house needs to be clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy - I need to remind myself of that more often.
12. Riding the bicycle is much more fun with a little blonde haired boy riding in the back who points out cows, ducks, tractors, and says "wheeee" while going downhill.
13. Things in life have much more meaning; I care more about issues because the kind of world my boys live in and the beliefs and values they'll have matter immensely to me.
14. Uninterrupted adult conversations with friends are highly valued and necessary to stimulate my brain and keep me from feeling like my identity is only that of a mom.
15. Not to be so judgmental toward other parents and children because I know very well that you don't always have control over how your child behaves.
16. I like to do activities that my boys enjoy because I like to see their joy and learn how their mind works and how their brains process things.
6 comments:
3. This one has been sort of a surprising thing for me too. It's just not always clear cut, and the right discipline for one might be the wrong discipline for another. I have the heart felt prayer that the Lord will take my "best that I know" and use it for what it can be, and fill in the rest of the gaps left by my shortcomings and mistakes and flaws.
6 & 11 - Me. Too.
10. An empty quiet house is such a heady experience that in all my rush to use it to it's relaxation max I can hardly relax! :)
15. Amen.
Yes and Amen! I loved your thought, Sylvia, thanks for sharing them! (You already know mine!) =) -Angela
Sylvia, I appreciate your sincerity, honesty, humility in this post. There's a lot of wisdom here that Betsy and I will find invaluable in the future...Lord willing. I love you, Martin, and the boys very much. You're doing a great job with them! :)
Philip
Thanks friends. It's good to know that the lessons, the good times and the challenging times are shared by other moms. It's a wonderful growing experience...
Thanks Philip for your encouragement. You are very encouraging to me - I especially like that about you.
-Sylvia
I appreciate your honesty Sylvia. I can definitely identify with
#2-i can see myself sometimes relected in the actions of the girls and it's a good reminder to work on those things myself
#3-will this ever get easier?
#6-i've thought of myself as a patient person, but there is something about the wearing down of a whiney voice or bickering sisters that decreases the patience pretty quickly
#13-i think it's a refining process
I love you Sylvia and i also think you're doing a great job!
Love,
Carmen
Very Good! You put it into words very well, yes, a sanctifying process and greater joy in the simple things in life!
Luci
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