Mom goals

I am still getting used to being a stay at home mom. One of the biggest changes for me was not having a to-do list every day with a million different work projects on the list.  The first thing I would do every morning I went into work was to write my to-do list. I know it sounds a little weird, but I thrive when I have a to-do list.

I definitely have lots to do staying at home with my kids, but I don't have a to-do list these days. If I did, it would probably have 3 loads of laundry on it, 35 diaper changes, cooking, and cleaning x 100 every day.  I have loved getting to stay at home, but I still struggle with it a little. I know what Michael does for a living and it is hard. I struggle with him being so busy and me not pulling my share. I guess I just have to begin to look at it a little differently. Although I don't have the same tasks on my to-do list that I used to, I have three little people looking at me to teach them and just have fun with them. And that's important too.

One of the main reasons I wanted to stay at home was because I always felt like I was telling my kids no, rushing them and just not having fun with them. I was very stressed and had so much to do that I couldn't be the mom I wanted to be. So I have really been working on being the mom I want to be. One of the changes is trying to be a "yes" mom.  I don't mean saying yes to everything my children request. But trying to do the things they want to do, when we can, really goes a long way. There isn't that much time in your life where you get to go to the park or go swimming whenever you want. But we are in that phase of life right now in my family. None of my children are in school, so we really can do whatever we want whenever we want.

Patrick, Conor and I were running errands today (Peyton was at mother's day out) and we drove by West Nashville park. The sprinklers were all on in the field next to the park and Patrick commented that it looked really cool.  I knew he would much rather go to the park instead of running errands. My first thought was that we couldn't go because we needed to go to Costco. But, since I have really been trying to get in the mindset of being a "yes mom," I asked if he wanted to go run through the sprinklers instead of go to Costco. He looked at me excitedly and said "But we don't have any other clothes and sprinklers are wet." I thought this was the perfect example to teach my child spontaneity. I am not spontaneous at all, but that is one of the things I really love about Michael. And who cares if we get all wet? It's 5 minutes from our house and we can always go home and change and go to Costco later. So we chose to run through the sprinklers instead of go to Costco and it was really fun! Patrick had the biggest smile on his face and it made our day so much happier.

This may seem like a small example, but it is a big change for me. I have trouble being spontaneous and being a "yes mom" but I am working on it. I want my child to look back on his childhood and remember a really happy mom and one that listened to his ideas. So i'm going to strive to say yes when I can (and within reason :) ) and as a result say "no" a little less too.