I feel overwhelmed today and I know I am not alone. I suppose it doesn’t really matter where you are on the road of motherhood, the feeling of being overwhelmed reaches far and wide. Somedays I feel more overwhelmed than others. About once per month, if you know what I mean, I feel like giving up. I look at the large job of motherhood that God has given me, I look at my kids and all the things I think they need to learn, change, and grow in and I just feel like screaming, “I QUIT!!!”
I was pretty close to screaming that out at the top of my lungs in my backyard today, but I figured my neighbors might not understand so I managed to keep myself under control. The kids and I were attempting to practice their soccer skills, but all we got accomplished was the kids bickering and claiming the unfairness of everything and me practicing my referreeing skills. You see this whole sibling thing just escapes me. I am an only child and I just don’t understand why everyone can’t just quietly stand in line and take their turn kicking the ball. Or why is it that when I go inside to make lunch, they feel the need to continually fly open the door and report (or tattle, if you will) about what is going on outside? I just don’t get this whole sibling thing. Why can’t they all just get along, know that life is not fair and get over it?
I digress…I took a look around at the situation today and thought, “I have so much work to do with my children.” Then I thought, “Where do I even start?” This is not the first time I have had this conversation with myself so I knew the answer already. Don’t give up. Just pick one thing to work on and start there. When the list of things to work on looks too large to conquer, pick the one thing that drives you the most crazy and start there. I’ve done it since my kids were babies and I still do it today. Instead of sitting back like a helpless victim, which sometimes happens, I choose to stand up and be The Mom. All of a sudden it hits me, “What am I doing? I’m the mom for goodness sake!” Sometimes I forget that I am in charge. So when I have this dawning revelation my kids better look out! Mommy is on a mission!
You want to know a secret? I usually find that when I stop being the victim and get back to parenting on purpose, my kids actually like it. They like it better when I give them direction because 9 out of 10 times, they already know what they need to be doing, they just need a little reminder.
So for today I started with the practicals. We practiced standing in line, taking turns kicking and rotated the goalie (the coveted position). From there, I began to wade deeper into the heart issues of each one of my children. One of my children is particularly selfish so I realized that I need to address that heart issue again. One of them seems to think the world is against them. Gotta deal with that. Off I go to conquer yet another day of motherhood and vow to never give up!
Brandy, I think I’m getting addicted to your blogs. Which is weird for me to say.
“Parenting on Purpose”…that’s a good line. Maybe we should have named the blog that!
Love ya!
-N