Every mom’s Jean Valjean moment.

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Monument

It’s coming for you, as it came for me.  It comes for us all. You can (over) prepare yet still be surprised, caught off guard, when it happens.

You might think you are ready, having known what to expect from the beginning.  You got your groove back, maybe more than once.  You carefully bent to fit the mold you admired.   Dr. Sears or Dr. Ferber?  Organic produce and food mill or Gerber from Kroger?  Gymboree or Children’s Place?  Permissive or restrictive?  Surely, in any case, you’re now the Hands Free No Yelling sort.  All the moms are doing it.

But maybe you’re not.  Maybe, like me, you finally read one too many and decided: ENOUGH.  I am not any of you.  I am my own brand of Me.  I am exactly the mom my little people need, the only mark I need to leave.

 

*****

written for the WordPress Weekly Writing Challenge, Traces

10 responses to “Every mom’s Jean Valjean moment.”

  1. Courtney Wright Avatar
    Courtney Wright

    Love it!! I am me..I am imperfect and I am enough 🙂
    Rock on chick!

    Like

  2. Britt Avatar
    Britt

    Yay yay yay! This should be the mantra of all mommies.

    Like

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  4. wendy@chezchloe Avatar
    wendy@chezchloe

    Don’t we love that Lesley! Yes I saw you there. it worked. cheers wendy… class of ’86 (in FL that is…was)

    Like

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  6. rackoblue2 Avatar
    rackoblue2

    It takes some of us longer than others. I have recently concluded that my style of parenting is, and was all I could be and all that was needed. I went through years of guilt wondering if I had done this, or that differently, would my children be better off? Always, when they would run into a life decision and make, (the way I viewed it), a bad choice, I would pound myself for the answer to, “What did I do wrong?”. After much self analysis and soul searching I realized that I don’t have as much to do with the outcomes as I once thought I did. I may have influenced some of their strengths and weaknesses. But, their decisions are just that, theirs. They are individuals the same as we all were as young adults. Now that I have freed my mind of the punishing guilt, I have been able to get to know these interesting individuals better. I have also found when I communicate with my children from a place of getting to know an interesting individual, instead of from a place of guilt, I have a lot to learn about these people, also known as, my kids.

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