Have compassion when there is poop in our hair.
Motherhood can feel fulfilling and isolating, all on the same day. When people take time to see moms, it can transform their experience. No kids were hurt during this recording, but one did try to climb into the fireplace.
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I’m a late comer to your podcast. But I love it and because I have known you and your family for a very long time, I’m emotionally invested in all of you! However, I wanted to share an experience that I had after listening to this episode several months ago.
I was at Target one day during my lunch break and there was a woman with her 3 young kids there. They were being a bit "unruly" and mean to their mom actually. You could see she was very frustrated and overwhelmed by their behavior when she just needed to get her grocery shopping done. I happened to see her 3 different times throughout my visit to the store and all three times, those little ones were just really "having a bad day".
Years ago, before I became a grandma, my first thought would have been, "Goodness! She should really take them home! They are so loud!" But now that my perspective has changed, and especially after listening to this episode, my heart was softened. I was feeling anxiety for the mother and the look on her face just prompted me to do something. As we were leaving the store, I acted on that prompting finally (because I was worried about approaching her and how she’d feel), I made eye contact with her and I said, "I want you to know that you are doing a really great job and you are an amazing mother!" She was surprised. I then handed her two movie tickets that I had in my wallet and said, I hope you can use these to go to a movie and just take an evening out to recharge. You deserve it!"
She had this look on her face of "Wow, what just happened?" and I walked away feeling pretty warm inside. It was all I could do at the moment but I felt she needed a movie night out more than I did. Thank you for helping me to "see" other mom’s".
Love you guys!
Janna