Mothers Need Validation

Okay so being a mother is hard and being the mother of a pre-teen is even harder. Sometimes your daughter loves you and thinks you are the best thing since sliced bread and other times she is in your face yelling at you all the reasons why you are horrible. And then you go to bed at night and review your interactions with said daughter to the point you start feeling guilty and you know you can do better and be more patient and cool and awesome and just plain old amazing, and after all of this pep talk you realize you only have a few more years with this child and your heart aches.

Does this make sense? It does if you have a pre-teen/teenager.

This morning I was still feeling the blues of "I am not a good mother" when I came across these pictures. A few weeks ago, I signed up to be a helper at Shailey's school field trip to the Parasite Museum (yes, this is a real place). That day, I started to clean my messy kitchen and then thought to myself, "you know, today it is St. Patrick's day, wouldn't it be fun to take green cupcakes to Shailey and her friends on the field trip?" So I stopped cleaning and started baking. The cleaning did not get done until the next day, but you know what.... it was worth it. I made Shailey's day and she was so thankful. She told me I am the coolest Mom in the world. For that moment, I felt like a mother who put her priorities right.

Today I needed this "self" validation. A mother's job is tricky business.

My mother once told me that it tears your guts out to think of your child ever leaving you... and then they become a teenager. She thinks this all part of God's plan to make it easier to let go. Hmmmm something to think about :).