“It only takes a minute to tell parents they’re doing good.”
-Minute Maid
I stumbled onto this video on YouTube yesterday, and boy did it make me boo-hoo! It’s such an important message to remember…just be sure to grab a tissue before you watch…
Here’s to making minutes matter. XO
Oh, my goodness
That was wonderful 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
I’m one of those moms who always feels like I’m falling short of the things I wanted to do for my kids…be a better cook, a better housekeeper, a better planner…and on and on…and now that my kids are grown (20’s-30’s), I think I’ve grieved over the “if only’s” even more and point out my shortcomings to them, saying I wish I’d done better at this or that…but they’ve tried to tell me not to be so hard on myself.
This beautiful video really spoke to me. It also showed me that probably most parents feel like I do…that we see our shortcomings more than our accomplishments, and it validated what my kids have been telling me…that we did all right. Thanks.
Well, how timely is this? Last night I finally hung up on my 24 year-old-know-it-all-daughter because I didn’t car for “the tone” in which she was speaking to me. That’s the bad news- at 24 “we” are still having “issues” as she starts her own life after college and I adjust to her ‘not needing me any more’. So, for now, while I wait for that someday letter from MY dear daughter, I will be reminded that she DOES love me and that I DID do a good job raising her, which IS apparent because she IS doing just fine for now. I know she appreciates me-and with age comes wisdom and I know eventually she will appreciate all I did for her, as I now do for my mom. I think it is human nature and how God planned it – that we will always question how we are doing because that is what keeps us being a good mom. I wouldn’t want to know a woman who could actually verbalize that she is a great mom and that she does enough for her kids. That’s what being a mom is- it is never enough…
I have had the most compliments from my nieces and nephews, who spent a lot of time at my home. One niece and nephew had a mother who abandoned them when the niece was 3 and nephew was 6. She chose drugs and alcohol over her children. They went to live with their father, who tended to drink a lot and remarried a woman with 5 kids. Niece and nephew were dear to my husband and I, so we did so much with them and they spent a lot of time with us. My husband and I adopted a drug baby, and niece and nephew were still so much in our lives. When our adopted son grew up and hit puberty he began to use drugs and alcohol. At 18 he took off and followed that life style. I questioned myself a lot, but my dear niece and nephew said that we were the best parents and, in their 20s, told me that they had always wanted to be our children and appreciated how much time we gave to them. Both assured me that I was the greatest mom and that Jimmy’s predisposition was what took him away and nothing we did was wrong. My other nieces and nephews all said the same. I am blessed.
While it’s nice to hear from them that you are doing a good job, with us, it was using our instincts to raise our girls to be the kind of grownups we would want to be around, and teach them to reach for the stars. They turned out great, and while growing up, never gave us cause to question where we went wrong. As children, they were always complimented on their good behavior and were told by teachers that they wished all their students were like them. It resonated with me, that I was doing my job well.
I will add that we weren’t a part of a church, we wanted our girls to be able to choose to follow what their hearts told them, not what we believed. But we still had God in our lives, just not formally. Our girls both chose different paths based on their spouses and children, and it makes me so happy they are true to their own beliefs. I pat myself on the back every day, and don’t need a letter to say I did good.
My husband had an aunt who would not allow any of his cousins into her precious living room, but my girls were welcomed there any time we visited. The grown cousins still remark that they were the only kids ever allowed in that room! HA! ;-0