On Monday I had one of those days. You know, the ones where you wake up thinking you can realistically accomplish 500 things during the day and still greet your husband with a smile and an amazing dinner on the table. Mondays are days that I’m off from work so can sometimes get a little ambitious and try to pack too much in, ballet for sweet girl, play dates, running errands, appointments, grocery shopping, chores, laundry and the list goes on. This one was no exception, I had my older boys home still on vacation so I figured they could watch the little ones for me while I went to some appointments thus enabling me to add even more to my to-do list.
Now, all of the things that I did were good things, things that I’m happy to have on my plate at this time in my life. The problem was that I was trying to do all of them at the same time and that didn’t leave very much room to be home or actually to supervise my little ones. So in the morning while I was getting ready, I had them watch TV for a little bit , while I ran my errands and went to appointments, big brothers let them watch TV, and then when I got home and had to make dinner, you guessed it. . . again some TV. OK, I can already feel the judgment, the finger pointing, but believe me NO ONE is harder on me than I am so already my mind was rushing toward the ever readily available feeling of GUILT. Yes, they played and read books and did other things but the TV was on much longer than I would have liked! Another of my weaknesses on display for all. . .
BUT I have been having “grace” on my mind a lot lately, probably thanks to Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, which I won’t go into now because I’ll write for hours and get totally sidetracked so another time, I promise. Anyway, Ann’s big thing is about everything being grace, the good and the bad stuff (this is a total oversimplification). So right at the moment when I was ready to beat myself up over what I terrible parent I am for letting my kiddies watch too much Nick Jr, I stopped myself. I actually told the ugly, guilt flinging voice in my head to shut up and gave myself some grace. Because the truth of the matter is that I LOVE my kids, I am there for them and I would give anything for them, that wasn’t in question, and most of the time I have them adhere to strict rules about television, etc. but even if there are 99 things I am awesome at as a mom and wife, I always tend to focus on the ONE thing that I need to work on, the one that I can’t be perfect at, the one thing that’s a total FAIL. Can anyone relate?
Well, not this time. Sadly, I work with kids who are not as fortunate as mine and whose greatest problem is NOT that their parents let them occasionally watch too much television. They have much deeper challenges. Ones that really kind of put things in perspective.
Friends, I KNOW you are doing an awesome job at being a mom, wife, aunt, friend, teacher, helper and all of the other roles you wear so will you please join me this week in telling the ugly guilt voice to shut it? As someone who grew up watching way more TV than my own kids do now and who has turned out pretty well (if I do say so myself), I think I’m OK with occasionally dropping the ball and letting the kids watch an extra episode of Dora the Explorer, I mean hey they’re even practicing their Spanish skills.
I am right there with you, friend. I want so desperately to do everything perfectly with my babies and tend to beat myself up when I mess things up. One thing that really helps me is to remind myself that God loves these children even more than I do and wants them to love Him even more than I do. And if GOD wants this…who will stand in His way? Not even me with all of my mistakes! 🙂
I totally agree, I’ve been reminding myself of that. That God loves them even more than I do and wants to be in relationship with them, I’ve especially needed this reminder with my teenagers 🙂
OH, I’m with you! We had the flu a few weeks ago and I think my kids had a steady diet of TV and more TV because even Momma was down for the count. I have been learning about giving myself grace lately as well, so I’m right there with you! Thanks for linking up today, don’t forget to jump in on the giveaway!
I hear that voice sometimes myself. Like you said, they were practicing Spanish 🙂
Right? there are plenty worse things they could be doing 🙂
I am right there with you, friend. I want so desperately to do everything perfectly with my babies and tend to beat myself up when I mess things up. One thing that really helps me is to remind myself that God loves these children even more than I do and wants them to love Him even more than I do. And if GOD wants this…who will stand in His way? Not even me with all of my mistakes! 🙂
I totally agree, I’ve been reminding myself of that. That God loves them even more than I do and wants to be in relationship with them, I’ve especially needed this reminder with my teenagers 🙂
OH, I’m with you! We had the flu a few weeks ago and I think my kids had a steady diet of TV and more TV because even Momma was down for the count. I have been learning about giving myself grace lately as well, so I’m right there with you! Thanks for linking up today, don’t forget to jump in on the giveaway!
Great post!