I have a truly scary story to share, but it's not fiction my friends.
Today, while I was stretching post-workout, I turned on the T.V. I began to watch a talk show and the supposed topic was Motherhood. They did a video intro on a woman who is a perfectionist, I mean EVERYTHING has it's place and is IN it's place (oh how I envy...in a good way). Then, after the video clip, the woman and her daughter are on the stage and the hosts introduce another mom and label her the "laid-back-daughter's-best-friend" mom. The hosts then begin to pick apart the first mom, barraging her and her daughter with questions that obviously intend to cause contention and promote competition with the other mom. Sure enough, when they begin to ask the "fun" mom what she thinks, she begins to promote the way she parents while adding barbs about the other woman's parenting style. I doubt it was ever the intention of the 2nd mom to do so, but the media set it up to become an arena of parenting competition.
I turned the T.V. off. The last thing we as women, mom's or not, need is to feel that we have to defend every decision we make. We're hard on ourselves. We, for the most part, know our weaknesses. We are trying, really trying, to do what is best for our families, our communities, our God. So ladies, here is my plea: Ignore the media. Embrace each other's differences. Learn from each other. Be humble, be teachable. So what if we don't approach things the same way? Encourage one another. As long as you are striving to improve, forgive yourself for deficiencies and always be forgiving of others.
Don't let the dark side pull you in. You have a wonderful work to do.
4 comments:
Thanks for writing this. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we're not and not what we are that we can become depressed. We all have wonderful talents that heavenly father gave us to share with others. Let's use those talents to enrich each others' lives.
That's why men are awesome. We don't pick on men for parenting style. The only guys we pick on are the one's who play soccer.
Thanks Leslie for pointing this out. It's true, that we as women, get caught up in what others think, and sometimes forget what really matters. I am grateful to all the moms out there, who are examples to me, and who I try and follow what they do. You are an awesome MOM!! Thanks for being a great example!! :-)
I forgot to say that I like the picture of coop as a wizzard and the picture of you guys behind the trees, peeking.
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