Thursday, January 3, 2013

Confessions of a stay at home mom

This was me tonight.....
Though I'm a little ashamed to share this, I really just feel it needs to be discussed.  
As a stay at home mom to a 3 year boy and 6 month old girl I have a lot going on in my day to day life.    Some may look at being a stay at home mom as an excuse to be lazy and not work.  For those of you who have ever been a stay at home mom you know it is far from that.  Though there are days where I am lazy, being a stay at home mom truly is work.  It is harder than any other job I've ever had...and I've had a lot of jobs.  It is the best job, but it is no walk in the park.
Anyway, my purpose in writing this post is that I need advice.  I've been a mother now for almost 4 years.  I should know what I'm doing right?  Wrong!  Some days are great and I feel in total control and know what I'm doing.  Other days I feel clueless.  Just when I think I've found a good way of parenting or disciplining life throws me a curve ball and that plan doesn't work anymore.  I guess it's my Heavenly Father's way of helping me continually grow.  Some days though I wouldn't mind having it easy and not "growing" :)
You hear people all the time saying that their children teach them patience.  You'll never know how much they teach you that until you have children of your own.  Sometimes I am amazed at how well I can hold it together when my loving 3 year old boy is yelling, throwing a fit, not listening, etc.  Then there are times when I feel I have no control over the situation and I have no idea what to do.  The easy thing is to give in, yell, make threats, but those are most definitely not the answer and will more than likely make the situation worse--believe me, I know.  I just don't know sometimes how to keep my stress level low in these types of situations.  Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated and encouraged.  What are your coping mechanisms?


My new motto in life :)

2 comments:

  1. Time out. For you, not them. Sometimes you have to just leave the situation completely. Sometimes that's not really an option, but in those instances, get everything in place as quickly as possible so you can leave. Moms need time-outs too. Sometimes more than the kids.

    At the risk of being preachy, I think that (like all of our vices) it's a matter of overcoming the natural man and becoming more like God. The way we can do that is through the atonement (Mosiah 3:19). Also, remember that we are teaching our children by the way we act, not what we say. I'm not saying I'm good at keeping calm around my family all the time, but it's definitely something I'm continually working on and I try to think about what I'm teaching my children when I yell at them. Am I yelling at them not to yell? Maybe not so effective.

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  2. Thanks Kierst. A time out for me is definitely in order :)

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