Mom Handbook..........

Though it has been over 20 years since I first became a Mom, I remember those mixed feelings of excitement, apprehension and questioning like it was yesterday. Like many new Moms I had wished I was handed a "How to" handbook upon taking my newborn home from the hospital. On this Mother's Day afternoon, I got to thinking of the one piece of advice I would share in a handbook. Something that has held up to the test of time...how ever bumpy the road has been.

Believe in yourself and parent from your heart!  With a baby, many people (family and strangers included) will provide (unsolicited) how to ways of doing things. Sure it's great to share with others and gather ideas and support, but with it, for me came pressure. However, it is helpful to think of it as a buffet table. Pick and choose what is best for you and your baby. Nurse or bottle feed??? Let a crying baby cry it out??? Let baby sleep in our bed???? Confidence builds as we follow our heart  It is not a time for you to be concerned with whether or not you are doing it right, according to others, or if judgement is being passed. It is time for your energy to go into you and your baby and doing so by believing in you.

As the children have grown and I am now the Mom of a teenager and a young adult, the same principle holds true. I may be the only Mom that doesn't allow certain things, (can't imagine it, but my 16 year old frequently reminds me I am) but listening to my heart still holds true today. Parenting by heart is certainly not always the easiest answer or the quickest resolving one, but it is following the path I have taken, for being the kind of Mom I want to be. Loving my boys deeply...