Local Mom Holding it Together Just Fine.

"Well, once you get away from all the hype and the media frenzy, it turns out, that I'm holding it together just fine," Karen, an area mother with three boys, a full time job, had a moment of clarity yesterday. She was interviewed between loads of laundry, work phone calls and kids' nap times, all of which she seemed not to notice that much. "Just recently," she added, "I've been stepping back and bit and re-examining my priorities. Truly, being a good mother is very important to me, which is why I'm so successful at it." She nods with a smile towards her oldest child. Speaking in full sentences, getting himself dressed, showered and brushing is own teeth are just the bottom of the barrel accomplishments for her about to be 8 year old son. "He also is very nice, funny and plays viola and baseball. I remember thinking he'd always throw a fit when we left a friend's house. Now he smiles, hugs them and says "bye." We've come along way since he was two." What Karen is not saying is that so many of these skills are really all because of her. She signed him up for viola and baseball. She taught him to say "bye" to friends. She taught him to brush his teeth.
"I don't mean to brag, but they're not being raised by wolves, ya know?" Karen looked hopefully at her younger two offspring. The far away look in her eye dreaming of the accomplished about to be 8 years olds they too would become. "I used to worry a lot more and compare myself to other moms, but I'm done with that now. We go outside when we want; I'm not a bad mother because I won't take them out it to play in the rain. And if I do take them out to play in the rain, it'll be because I want to, not because the neighbors are doing it. They get some "screen time," but not too much. They have scheduled activities, but not too many. I cook healthy food, but allow treats. And when we have birthday cake, it's the good stuff. I kinda like the way I'm running this ship and I think my kids like it too. No more advice from talk shows or parenting magazines...I'm the mommy. Everywhere I look, experts and observers are trying to get me to sign my name in blood to their particular parenting technique. My kids are so different, each one of them is consuming a different part of my creative parenting strategies. I actually amaze myself that I have such an enormous capacity to give. Just when I think I can't give any more, I'm replenished and can keep on loving 'em."

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Okay other good mommies out there play along; visit Rebecca and tell her so, or write your on post and let her- and the rest of us - know!