Parenthood: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

By Renee

" Moooom! Where are my shoes?" "Moooom! She's looking at me." "Moooom! _____________." (you fill in the blank.) There are days when I ask myself, "What were you thinking?"and "Why did you think this was a good idea?" If you're honest with yourself, you do too. But alas, it is true. I am Mom and I'm glad about it! My children are truly a gift, really. But on those days when the kids are fighting or I've just said "brush your teeth" for the fourteenth time, I can lose sight of this pretty quickly. Then, my attitude about my children can take a complete turn from gift to burden. That starts the cycle of guilt for thinking they could ever be a burden and then that turns into resentment and so on. You get the picture.

How can I recapture the gift that is my children? For me, a lot of prayer and support from my family and friends is crucial. I love it when someone comes up to me and says something like "Your daughter is so sweet and thoughtful. She has a good heart." It pummels me back into place and reminds me that I need to be discovering the positive qualities of my children and not dwelling on the negative. More importantly, I need to celebrate them and look forward to unwrapping their packaging every day, just like a birthday present. But unlike a birthday that is celebrated one day out of the year, my children can be celebrated every day of the year.

Here is a little exercise for you, to help you remember that your children and your whole family are gifts meant to be celebrated.

1. On a piece of paper or in your journal, draw a pretty package with a bow and label it with the name of your family member.
2. Next to it, write down all of the attributes, talents, characteristics that make that person a gift.
3. Do this for each of your family members. It works the same for spouses!
4. Post it somewhere you can see it every day as a reminder. (Trust me, you will need to look at it frequently!)

You will still have days when you want to voluntarily join the witness protection program, but maybe not so many of them. I know. I'm currently hiding behind closed doors with my laptop hoping that "out of sight" will truly translate to "out of mind!"

No such luck. "Moooom! What's for dinner?"