Let's Be Honest

After attending the first run through of the LTYM show, I realized how many different moms there really are out there. I mean, yah I have kids and I am around moms a lot more than any other time in my life. But to hear a small tid bit of their mothering lives has dug a crevice in my brain and makes me think about myself as a mom.

Now, if it isn't hard enough to try to figure out who you are in life. I feel as though I am also figuring out how to be a mom in my life. Yes, I will always be A MOM. But what type of mom am I? I think that the description of what type of mom I am will be ever changing. But there is always be an underlying platform of what type of mom I am that I will stand on.

I wonder what type I am when I am witnessing moms with their children at the store. There are moms that will buy their kids anything and everything, ones that won't buy them anything and just let their child cry it out in the aisles, moms who will give lectures to their children on why they are or aren't getting a toy, moms that will yell or spank their children in the store, and moms that will calmly pat their child on their heads and speak in such a calming voice it is a bit scary (to which I think, are they really that nice all the time or are they putting a show on in the store?). I have been all of the above mentioned moms. So, where is it that I fit in again?

I would like to think all of us are at some point all of those moms, but I think that isn't true. There are parents that do not raise their voices to their kids. There are parents that don't go anywhere without their children. There are parents that cuss in front of their kids. And their are even parents that have a beer in front of their kids. Shocking, I know.

There will always be critics for any of the above parenting styles. My thing is, who frickin cares? And why do I care? Part of me thinks that how my parents treated me tend to play a role in who I am as a parents, but I also think that makes me NOT want to raise my kids as my parents did.

I guess I am thinking that moms are always put into a categories: hands-on mom, fun mom, non-spanking mom, let-your-kids-stay-up-late-watching-TV mom, drinking-when-your-kids-are-on-your-nerves mom, doing-everything-for-your-kids-and-not-yourself-mom, or even feeling-selfish-when-you-do-things-for-yourself-and-not-your-kids mom. And sometimes society (or family or ourselves) make us feel bad when we are not living up to one or more of their preconceived notions of a true and hearty MOM. I think that I fit all of these categories at one point or another in my life as a mom. I just hope that my boys will appreciate me and see all of the hard work I do for them to be happy. Also, I hope that they realize it on their own. Not when I reach a boiling point and I am crying and asking them if they realize all the stuff I do for them!

This has just been on my mind lately because I feel as though trying our best and feeling out ways that work and don't work is also a category of being a mom. I envy parents that have it all together (or seem as though they do). But I also think to each his own. Whatever works for you and whatever works for me is the way it is. It is just a different point of view.

Besides, what adult life would be complete without stories of your crazy mom.