Friday, June 25, 2010

Mom of the year?

Recently a friend of mine told me that she and another "old" friend of mine had decided to vote me mom of the year. I chuckled at her. Its just the kind of thing those two Amys would come up with.

Then I had to ask her how that happened. She told me its because I work awful hours full time at a miserable job (all true) and still find the time/patience to be very involved with what my kids are up to. I laughed even harder then. Really? Me?

But it all got me thinking. While I appreciated the praise (especially coming from 2moms who I greatly respect and admire)I really doubted that their thought process was all that accurate. Sure, I try to help out at the schools where I can, which to me is VERY little, and I REFUSE to be a part of the PTA, which to me is just a click/popularity contest for adults. And yes, I go to all the functions I can Class parties, concerts, games, ceremonies. But to me it all seems like very little. I always feel like I'm not doing enough. My need for sleep tends to keep me from doing the amount I feel like I ought to be doing. Do I spend enough "quality time with my kids? Do I them to enough "fun" places? Is it bad that instead of the shoes they REALLY wanted, I bought the ones I could REALLY afford? Am I teaching them all that I want to teach them? Am I raising well rounded individuals that know the importance of thinking for themselves, but also how to treat everyone with respect (even the bullies)?

So now I wonder is this what all moms go through? Stay at home, working, single, married, grown up kids, little kids, new moms, old hands, one child, many children? I know I still had the same concerns back when I was able to be at home with my kids. Am I just being neurotic? Am I just hard on myself? Or am I really not nearly as good a mom as some people seem to think? Its all almost enough to make one's head want to explode.

Mom of the year? I don't know, despite the Amys' declaration, I'm saying the jury's still out on this one.

1 comment:

rachel said...

i think it comes with the title 'mom'... perhaps if we had no one to compare ourselves to... no one out there who did more, or cooked better, or threw better parties, or did more crafts, or painted the bedroom cuter, or etc. etc. etc. yeah. i suppose it's better to feel like you could be doing more than to have a superiority complex or something...