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Are You a Good Enough Mother?
By TheAngelForever | March 31, 2011
Have you ever had one of those moments where you doubt yourself, wonder what is happening, and question whether you are a good enough mother/parent/adult/human?
Welcome to my current world.
As I hinted at the other day, TechyDad and I are in the process of making some tough decisions for our family. I have shed a lot of tears since we got back home from the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Let’s just say that coming back from a week of magic, where you can forget about reality, is harsh.
Fortunately, I am trying to remember some wise words that I heard at the conference. I am working on embracing the philosophy of the The Good Enough Mother. This means accepting that nobody is perfect, being able to let go of things, allowing for me time, and realizing that I am not failing my children. We all make mistakes, learn from these mistakes (not failures), and grow thanks to them. Still being a TypeA personality, it is not easy to let go of my ways.
So who helped me to see the light? This beautiful, amazing, and truly inspirational woman that I am standing with below:
Meet Rene Syler – the head GEM. What is a GEM, read more about what it mean to be a Good Enough Mother on her website. Here is a little biography that was provided to us before the event at Disney:
Rene Syler has had the opportunity to interview famous faces, political personalities and countless authors during her four year position as one of the anchors of The Early Show at CBS. In March 2007, Rene’s first book Good Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting was published by Simon Spolight Entertainment. From that her website, www.goodenoughmother.com was born.
Rene came onto the stage at DisneySMMoms and stole my heart and many others in the audience. She spoke to me on so many levels. Almost two weeks after hearing her inspirational speech, my brain is still going a mile a minute – not a bad thing honestly. Rene’s words have helped me during the moments where I wanted to quit being an adult and return to my childhood. Seriously, recalling her words has brought a smile to my face when there were tears in my eyes.
My plan is to bring you along on my journey as I embrace my inner GEM and work on reinventing myself. I will continue to explore more lessons from Rene and channel her energy here on my blog.
For now, I would like to share some of my favorite Rene Syler-isms from her talk. I Tweeted about many of these during DisneySMMoms, but think they deserve to be seen again:
- Being washed up is just another word for reinventing yourself. You can always reinvent yourself.
- Just because you used your womb doesn’t mean that you don’t use your brain.
- Real growth hurts. You cannot grow when you are comfortable, and you cannot be comfortable when you grow.
- Follow your passion, because you can never go wrong.
- It is okay to say to your kids, “Come here. Listen, Mommy need a break from you.” It’s good for you and for them.
- When you spit fire the message is lost.
- People who make you feel bad have no place in your life. Do not let people get you down about not being perfect.
- You only have so much energy and do not need to waste your energy on negative people.
- Anyone who says they are perfect is lying!
To read more about Rene’s talk, head over to Cutestkidever, where Christina live blogged.
One more thing, Rene is a big fan of Dancing With The Stars. She actually Tweets along with people using #dwts during the live shows. The other night, she mentioned that she would love to be on the show. Cindy, The Mom Maven, listened and started a Twitter campaign and wrote a blog post to let the powers that be know that Rene has our support. Please help us to get Rene Syler onto Dancing With The Stars – the world could learn so much while watching this amazing woman strut her stuff.
Rene is a one of a kind woman who can teach all of us so much. Thank you, Rene, for being you, for sharing with all of us your gift, and for Tweeting and supporting Social Media and Moms in general.
Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The sweet conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a long time Disney fan, it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.
Topics: Blogging Conference, decisions, Disney, DisneySMMoms, interesting, looking back, me moments, photos | 7 Comments »
March 31st, 2011 at 12:12 pm
Oh, I wish I heard her in person! Just that one phrase “Real Growth hurts” has so much meaning for me. Maybe it’s part of being a writer and a blogger, but it’s hard to put ourselves out there, not knowing if we’ll bomb. I worry about reaction, and lack of reaction, and whether I’m doing things right, and how my kids will turn out… really the list is endless.
Thanks for the inspiration to embrace being good enough!
Sandra Foyt´s last [type] ..Men in the Kitchen- Red Pack Giveaway
March 31st, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Okay now, my turn, you made ME! You are such a special lady, I know it, I felt it in your spirit when we met. Whatever you are going through, you will be fine. One more Rene-ism (I LOVE that) that might help… “You may not have all the answers, but you’re smart enough to figure it out.” Embrace that, the joy of imperfection and know that on the other side of this “thing” you will have grown immensely. Recognize the journey for the learning experience that it is. Cry when you need to, buck up when you have to but you’re doing just fine. I know it!
April 1st, 2011 at 12:03 am
[...] Are You a Good Enough Mother? | [...]
April 1st, 2011 at 12:15 am
If only we could wake up everyday to a good Rene-ism! And I love your new one Rene!
Cathi´s last [type] ..Aloha Friday – Doctors
April 1st, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Wow! These are so positive messages that we should all learn from.
I certainly have those days when I doubt my being a mother. Actually half the time, I don’t know what I am doing, that I can only hope that for my kids, I am doing the right thing. Things can get especially harder after a visit to the doctor, when my kids are not measuring up to the percentile charts. Sigh!
Anyway, in the end, I believe in this quote:
“The more people have studied different methods of bringing up children the more they have come to the conclusion that what good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is the best after all.” ~ Benjamin Spock
April 2nd, 2011 at 10:49 am
Rene was just amazing. So many things she said went right to my heart. She was by far my favorite speaker of the conference.
On another note, it was so nice to meet you in person!
Elle´s last [type] ..Disney Social Media Moms Platinum Wedding Soiree
May 12th, 2011 at 12:02 am
[...] before Mother’s Day. Some may call it selfish; others call it a must needed adventure. I call it being a GEM and knowing that I need ME time. Thanks to Rene Syler, I have realized that it is fine for me to [...]