My friend at Eve’s Lungs tagged me to write a post about five reasons I love being a mother. Since I wrote about why I like being a woman, this is a natural sequel. Is there a post on being a wife in the wings?
I will preface this with my philosophy of parenting. Our job is to prepare our children for the world they will live in and to be good people in that world. We need to avoid getting hung up in the minute details, they seem to take care of themselves. Teach them to solve problems and learn how to make decisions which means allowing them to make poor decisions and to fail with a safety net. Teach them to be kind and to stand up for others when they are being mistreated. Hug, kiss, cuddle and laugh with them. Tell them that we love them. Tell them we are sorry when we mess up. Keep our sense of humor. That’s enough!
So what do I love about being a mother.
First I love having a daughter. I could write books about Lydia, she is amazing and everything I ever imagined a daughter would be. I learned so much from her over the years. She inspires me to be creative and to be comfortable in my own skin. She teaches me about the world, about music, art, books, pop culture. Mostly, she teaches me about loving and living as a better person. She is the most interesting person I know.
I love having a great parenting partner. Matthew taught me to mother with both my heart and my head. He shared parenting equally and always had my back. He shared the fun, the joy, and the times when we had to make unpopular decisions.
I love that we were able to provide opportunities, experiences, and travel for Lydia that we did not have. I love that she took advantage of the opportunities to learn and to develop such a broad perspective of the world.
I love that because of Lydia I now have a son. Her choice of a husband brought to our family a son whom we can love and rely on to love her and to be an active member of our family. He brings fun and activity to this introverted family.
I love that even as an adult Lydia will still take a walk with me and hold my hand or loop her arm through mine or even crawl onto the bed with me for a cuddle and a lazy talk.
Now I am supposed to tag five people and link to them. I intend to bend the rules a bit and invite my readers to write about their joys in mothering.
Onedia
Lovely post O – and a lovely picture of you and Lydia; there is very strong family resemblance. Although I adore my boys I think I shall miss not having a daughter. I was very close to my mum, even more so as we grew older – that sort of closeness is hard to find/replace.
First of all, Greetings from Moose Island, Maine!
Tagged and I’m “it”, huh?
I simply adore my son. He’s almost 22 now and in some ways I miss the younger years but I can happily report he and I have a wonderful relationship.
I love being his mother for many reasons but mostly I am proud of the kind, intelligent, talented young man he has become.
I’m proud of him beyond reason and I am going to call him right this second and tell him so!
Hello , Downeast, nice to hear from you. Hope you will write a post after you talk with your son. We are not coming to Maine until August. Conserving our funds so we can stay for a full month.
Mrs. T. I cannot imaging mothering boys. My young nephew runs me ragged after a few days. Of course Lydia always entertained herself and was just easy that way . . . which I probably took advantage of.
Oh that was a great post Onedia and fun to see a photo of you with your daughter. Thanks for giving me an idea for a post and very timely since we are visiting with both our daughters on our trip. So that will be a post for when I return!
Lovely post O! Will do my tag shortly
Beautiful post Onedia. I think that all the things that you mentioned of being a parent are fantasttic and are my idea of what I want to do when I am a mother (hopefully)
I especially liked this concept: “Teach them to solve problems and learn how to make decisions which means allowing them to make poor decisions and to fail with a safety net.” I think that is one of the most important gifts a parent can give: how to think for themselves and be independent. This will allow them to make their own decisions and to feel empowered to solve their own problems.
Hope you are having a nice weekend,