Something Right

I don't sit around each day telling myself what a good mom I think I am.  For one thing, I don't sit around very often during the day.  Furthermore, I don't think about if I'm a good mom -- and more often than not, I think I could be a much better mom than I currently am.

My fuse is too short to name one of one hundred things I should be doing better each day as a mother.

In addition, I am the harsher parent.  I am usually the disciplinarian, and Tracey knows that when I say something I mean business.  I do think Tracey does well with the structure, but that does not make me the "fun" parent most of the time.

Probably because I worry about an older sibling becoming a bully, and I worry about the next generation having little sense of respect for their elders, I definitely have high expectations for Tracey (and the twins, but they are still very young for the type of correction and training I do with Tracey).

All of that being said, I have accepted my role -- enforcer of the rules, disciplinarian, and keeper of the structure -- the less fun parent -- the mom.  Now, my husband is not all fun and games, he knows how to be tough when necessary, but he simply is not here as often, so I need to run a tighter ship when I'm home with the children alone, and on my tight ship, I am the Captain.

For as many things as I want to improve about how I mother, and given the fact that I have accepted my role as the stricter parent, the other day something happened that brought tears to my eyes and made me realize, I must be something right.

Tracey's school asked her several questions and wrote down her answers and sent them home for us.  It is a precious keepsake that we will have about how she saw the world when she had just turned three years old.  When her teachers asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up, her answer was, "A Mama!"