Mom, you are the best!

As I thought about starting a blog I reflected on what was important to me.  It's focus had to be grand enough to share with the world (just in case anyone else reads it) and important enough that it helped even if I am the only one to read it.  The greatest thing about myself, and indeed the aspect of my personality I have struggled the most, is motherhood.  I don't think this comes naturally to me and I don't think that my ways are necessarily the best for all.  I do know that my path has worked and continues to work for me.  I know that I have great joy in being a mom and wish I had found this path earlier in my life.  

Why "Mom, you are the best!"?  This comes from my children.  One day I was trying to "jazz things up a bit" when I was teaching them to develop good manners.  So instead of reminding them to say, "Thanks, mom" I decided to have them say, "Thanks Mom, you are the best".  I actually tried other variations, but "Thanks Mom, you are the best!" is the one that stuck.  Now it helps me to have courage when I am cleaning up a toileting mess or doing the laundry.  The brightest memory I have of this is when I went camping with the kids (my husband had to work that weekend) and my 5 year old woke up at 2:30 in the morning so that I could watch him pee right where he stood.  It was very frustrating as I was exhausted from a long day traveling.  I really did not feel it appropriate (or have the energy) to have him clean it up.  I got busy to work and had clean clothes and bed for him, threw the wet clothes outside the tent (that will keep the bears away) and him back in bed in ten minutes.  As I lay there on the verge of tears resulting from being overwhelmed,  I heard a quite voice call out, "Thanks Mom, you are the best!"

Those are the moments that you can't explain to someone who is not a parent.  I know I did not understand when I was single.  I would have thought, "How cute!"  but it is more than that.  It is your child reliving a teaching that you have worked for months with him to develop.  Although he is too tired and exhausted to think about it, he still remembers to use good manners.  He still remembers to be grateful.  And I realize, that this hard work is not only flowing out of his tired mouth, but flows from deep within him.