Motherhood - The Wisdom of Many

If every mother wrote a book on her experiences as a new mom, the books would fill the Library of Congress ten times over - I don't have stats to support this theory, it's just my opinion.

NBC's Today Show had a piece on parenthood from the show's anchors and it made for fairly interesting reading. The side piece on motherhood myths next to the article was particularly interesting because it reflected a few things I experienced and foolishly believed I was alone in my feelings. Wow! I'm normal afterall!

When I had my beautiful, handsome, brilliant, funny, exceptional baby boy 18 years ago, I spent days trying to nurse him only to find that this natural mothering thing was very painful and very difficult. All these years, I thought something was wrong with me - nice to know I'm not alone. Also, during the first few weeks after he was born, I would look out the window and wonder when his parents were coming to pick him up. This mom thing hadn't really kicked in until after about a month. A word of advice to all new moms - that adorable, soft, squishy, gurgly, bundle of cuteness eventually grows up to be a purple-haired, tatooed, body-pierced, loud teenager that you won't even recognize as having come out of your body. Ladies - you have been warned.

Do I feel like I'm a better mom than my own mother? That depends on the subject. I'm more involved in the kids' schooling than my parents ever thought about. Were they bad parents - not really. This parent involvement is a relatively new thing - my parents were never encouraged to be part of my school day except at parent/teacher conferences and even those were competitive events between the parents with money and the parents without. The money won, by the way; therefore, my parents were pretty much ignored by all my teachers.

I think I was more involved in my kids' lives when they were littler - seemed more important then. Not that it isn't important now that they are teenagers - if anything, they need me even more now. It's just they want more independence and they should have it. I'm luckier than some parents. I know where my kids are at night, I know who they run with, and I know their teachers by name.

Parenting isn't easy - its not supposed to be. That's what love is all about.