hope you are a pigeon all day long

Happy Mothers Day!

I have been thinking a lot about the upcoming greeting card cash-cow...er... I mean Mothers Day. My sister-in-law and I were talking the other day about the fact that there is NO other area in a woman's life, after becoming a mother, that we are as vulnerable.

Think about it. When you had your first child, if anyone at all even made the slightest suggestion that you were not doing something exactly right, it was like cutting your heart open. You try so hard to make every decision you make be the right one. I mean, who wants to screw up their kid to the point that there is a book deal later in life, right?

Maybe it's just me, but I never wanted to be a "guest" on Oprah (or Jerry Springer!) and have one of my kids lambaste me on international television. I can hear it now:

"I remember the first time I heard you yell at me. You sounded like a cow bellowing. It scared me so bad that I still have nightmares about it." (through tears) "What could I possibly have done to elicit such an outburst." (now sobbing) "I was only a little kid." (boo hoo hoo kid runs off stage... camera follows.... crowd starts booing me and throwing things)

I put so much thought and effort into doing everything "ever-so-perfect" when I just had one, and then two kids that I was probably certifiable. Many times my heart felt heavy when I discovered I had made the "wrong" decision. My sis-in-law and I decided that this "guilt" is definitely not from God. That kind of head game could only be the result of the evil one.

We mothers do the best we can at every moment. Some moments do not have the capacity to yield the same wonderful results as other moments, but we are still doing the best we can. For example, some days I might handle a milk spill quite well: "Oh, honey, that's ok, it was an accident. Here, let me get that." Other times it might be more like: "Dear God in Heaven, help me! I have just vacuumed and mopped this dining room... why are you standing there like a statue? Quick, run get a roll of paper towels!!!"

A friend of mine has a signature on all of her emails, a quote which says, "If you can't be a good example, be a horrible warning." And as Mary Chapin Carpenter sings, "Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug."

Hope this Mothers Day finds you are "the pigeon" rather than "the statue".