Counting My Blessings in the Mommyhood Trenches

Being a Mom is hard.  Really hard. The demands on my time often feel endless. Most days I am drained and worn out, too tired to do anything I wanted to get to “after the kids are in bed.”

I’ll be totally honest and transparent here: I complain about way too much. I complain about the tantrums and the potty training. I complain about the exhaustion and sleepless nights. I complain about the diaper changes and endless mounds of laundry. I even complain about how many times I have to reheat my coffee (if I can even manage to prepare myself a cup)!

To my dismay, I often realize I spend more time complaining about my tasks and the endless work of teaching my kids to share and obey than I do being thankful for the job of being a mother.

If there was a contest for “Whiny Mother of the Month,” I think I would merit a nomination.

I wish I was exaggerating. But I know I’m not.

That being said, I decided to do something different. Instead of reading or writing blogs commiserating the hard work of parenting, I am going to talk about the great parts of being a Mom. Because sometimes, I just need to remember to be thankful for the little things in the midst of mucking in the trenches. Heck, sometimes I need to remember to be thankful for the obvious and big things too.

So here goes:

1. It’s pretty awesome being the center of someone’s life some days. To know that my child wants to sit in my lap and give me hugs and kisses is pretty darn special. I’ve been lucky enough to be blessed with not one, but two boys who love to shower me with hugs, and to date have never refused me a kiss. And that is a pretty cool thing to have indeed.

2. It’s amazing to have a front row seat to see how a kids develops. To see my sons’ imaginations grow as they play. To see them develop an interest in something like animals or dancing or music. Never in my life will I be able to be THISCLOSE to being the witness of such a magical unfolding on a daily basis as I am right now.

3. I get to be the most influential person on my sons’ lives. This is a weighty responsibility – as I attempt to be their biggest cheerleader and not their worst critic. I am allowed the opportunity to help my sons’ reach their biggest goals and potential, and hopefully be the person they turn to for comfort when they fail or the world fails them.

4. I get to be the expert on the people I love most. I’m the kind of person who likes dabbling in a lot of things, but am an expert in nothing significant. In fact I don’t think I am an expert in anything. Except for my kids. What they like, what they don’t like, how best to approach them, how to annoy them, and so on are some of the things I am an expert on. No one knows my kids like I do. So for someone who isn’t an expert on anything, it’s pretty cool to be an expert on two of the world’s most awesome boys.

5.  I get to have a son born with different needs. My younger son was born with Down syndrome. And what felt like one of the scariest things in the world to me hours after he was born has been an amazing place of learning and growth for me and those around me. I’ve learned so much about value, dignity, worth, abilities, truth, and beauty that I would not have delved into otherwise. I feel lucky to have two amazing sons. One who is typical and who was born with a little something extra.

6. I get to learn about things I had no experience with growing up. From the rough and tumble attitude of my boys to the plethora of boys toys covering my floors on a daily basis, being a mother of boys is very different from what I imagined. I am outnumbered. But I have learned about cars and engines, raptors and great white sharks, and all sorts of things I may never have encountered if it wasn’t for the male dominated household I live in.

7. I get to be a mother. Some days I take this part for granted. I make jokes about being thankful that I’m not pregnant because I feel so overwhelmed at times, but I know there are many women who are trying very hard to get the chance to bring home their own little one. So sometimes, I just need to step back and be thankful for the children I have. 

8. I get to enjoy time with my children. Some Mommas have to do this parenting thing alone. They spend hours working, then squeeze in shopping, cooking, housekeeping, in the midst of homework time, bath time, and bedtime. And that’s if they only have one job outside of the home. I get the blessed opportunity of stealing extra snuggle time before getting out of bed, and making spontaneous trips to the beach or the pool and enjoying time with my children. This season won’t last too much longer. So … I need to remember to be thankful for it.

There are other things I can be thankful about, but these are the first few that jumped to mind. I even had to work a little bit more mentally to keep these purely thankful and not laced with sarcastic or passive complaints. Like I said, I can be pretty whiny. But I am glad that I have plenty to be thankful for.  Now the trick is to learn to focus on all of these on the rough days.