When I see New Year’s resolutions, goals for 2017 and other posts about the months ahead, they mostly make me smile. I love seeing a work in progress, progressing. One made me pause. I think my old mood ring would have turned a little blue reading it: “be my best self in front of my daughter.”
I grew up on the outskirts of Seattle. We were about a 20-minute drive on I-5 to the downtown Sears. My mom would call in a catalog order from the Big Book. I almost always went with her to pick up the packages. Sometimes there would be a promise of a hand battered corn dog from one of the store’s upper floors. Side note: probably good that I don’t have a deep fryer because I still love ’em. On one trip, I can remember my mom being rude to a clerk at Will Call because our order wasn’t ready as promised. Probably that wasn’t her best self. Because it’s 2017 I should probably insert the smirking smiley face emoji here…and hashtag #reallife
Mammas, it’s ok to let your kids see you BE YOU: not perfect, maybe a little sad, maybe hot mad, maybe overjoyed or overcome with emotion. Yes, your family needs you to be the rock on solid foundation. Yes, your people need to be able to depend on you being steady. Emotional stability can bring a lot of comfort to a home: people like knowing what to expect when they come through your door.
I get this mamma’s ambition. Still today, I want to be a positive role model in my adult daughter’s life. Fact: I am not always. However, wouldn’t it serve her better if I worked to be my best self in front of everyone?
Wouldn’t it serve her better if I worked to be my best self, for myself?
And back to Sears: next to the corn dog stand was a big glass vending machine with a claw that let you grab a plastic bubble holding a prize. I think it cost a quarter, which was a lot when I was 5. (Yikes, that would have been 1968.) I wanted the one with the mood ring in it, really bad.
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