some {very important} mom facts

1.Watch your tone.  On the day full of mom cries when you answer short and impatient with your kids — you know the what now? response — that is the time when your sweet four year old will answer with a very innocent, and very humbling I love you back. Then you simply must snap out of your mood, and get over the frustration with the constant cries for you, the mom, and pick up the four year old and tell him you love him back.

2. Toys don’t get dumped out to irritate you. Case in point: Yesterday, the same four year old and his brother spent 3.5 minutes dumping out boxes and boxes of sorted toys that took me 35 minutes to clean up {with their help, of course}. My first and initial response? That they’re trying to bother me, they don’t love me, they don’t care about me — then I remember — they are two and four years old. They just like to dump things out into one massive pile. It’s not about bugging mom – it’s about playing and being a kid.

3. You will share your coffee {and all your food}. Not a day goes by when I don’t hear the inevitable sip-a-coffee mom? or can I have a taste? or just a little bit? cry from one of my kids. I bring home a latte from Caribou and they all want a sip — which is why I’m thinking from now on I’ll need to order a large {or Venti at Starbucks}. Let them have tastes. They will soon grow up before you know it and you’ll be wishing for them to be little again and remembering the days when they just wanted a little taste.

4. Read stories to them. I am serious. How many times do we go through the day and tell them in a minute or after lunch or hold on or okay, let me just finish this with regards to stories and books? Make it a priority to read to them. Write it on your list. Cross it off. Every single day make it a point to stop your busy schedule so that you can sit on the couch with them and read. You won’t regret reading to them, but you will regret it later if you don’t. {that shirt? remember people like me}

5. If they ask to help, let them help. And, yes, it will get messy, messy, messy. But, you see, you are here to teach, to train, to encourage them — not have the perfect house and yard and image — and being a mom involves a mess. See point two, if you need to be reminded. If you don’t give them the freedom to try cracking an egg and making a mess then they will not learn. And, eggs are cheap, you know. Let them try. Take the extra time. Bless them with learning life skills especially when they ask to help!

6. Don’t push them away with the busy. Related to the others, of course, but ultimately, we as moms have lists of busy. Laundry, yard-work, cleaning, resorting toys into boxes, cooking, diaper changing, driving, bill-paying, sweeping, and more. All of that? Busy. All of that? It could last all day. And I mean it. My list of things to do is longer than the hours of my day. I cannot parent when the to-do list is done. Parenting, being a mother, happens in the midst of the to-do list and there are many times when it needs to trump the to-do list. So the boys have a room full of blocks and cars and trains on the floor — but we read at night — or they learned to sweep — or we took a walk. That stuff matters. Not the sorted toys.

7. Pray out loud with them. And not just at meals. Mothers, let them hear you pray. Let them hear you give thanks, and pray for patience, and pray for them — for their day, their homework, their friendships, and more. Prayer needs to permeate your life. Don’t just keep it boxed up only to be taken out before dinner and bed. Just as you teach them about life skills teach them to pray.

8. You are not alone. There are lots of us moms out there. You’re not alone in having hard days, good days, pull-out your hair days {read this post of mine here for proof}, sad days, and how will I get through days. Being a mom is hard work. Don’t let society, or tv, or magazines make you think that it’s a piece of cake. Because, honestly, it’s not. It’s hard. But, it’s also beautiful, joyful, humbling, lovely, life-changing, and a gift. Remember that more.

Embrace today, right where you are, in your maybe not so clean and perfect house. Embrace the little ones or maybe getting big ones. And make sure above all things to tell them all you love them. That is life. And that? It’s being a mom. You can do it.

looking for more thoughts on motherhood? Click here to read my motherhood thread.

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