No More Perfect Moms Chapter 1

If you haven’t seen the first week’s video, you can check it out right here (it’s only 4 minutes long).  http://youtu.be/TVX4Ze-JKuQ

Chapter one was a real eye opener this week, wasn’t it? Here are some questions that Jill brings up in the intro and chapter one. I would love it if you choose to comment about any of them:

• What did you do BK—Before Kids? 
• What is your story? (can include growing up, marriage, career, 
• spiritual journey, etc) 
• When is your birthday? If you could choose to spend your birthday any way you  wanted to, what would you do? 
• What do you love most about being a mom? 
• What do you love least about being a mom? 
• What was your relationship like with your own mother? 
• If you had to describe yourself in just three words, what would those words be? 
• Share each of your kids names and choose one word to describe them. 
• What do you hope to gain from this study?

 Some days mothering is harder than I expected, especially when I don’t believe my child is sick only to have them upchuck later and end up in the emergency room. I hate to admit it but I’ve forgotten my son at preschool more times than I can count and have been late to pick up my oldest from middle school. And then I look at other mothers, most are friends where I have an insider view of their lives. They seem to have it together, their kids behave at Wal-mart, they seem to be perfectly dressed, the house is always clean and gush about their husbands. Then I go back home to break up sqaubbles, wonder what to make for dinner and end up not talking to my husband because of knit-picking. 

Jill Savage offers insight to this Perfection Infection, its called the comparison game. We cannot compare ourselves to other women. It sets us for failure and too high of expectations. Here’s a question she raises in the book and study guide: How does social media affect our self esteem? More than ever, we interact with women more due to Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other means of communication online. She writes:

Our expectations are fueled by a constant barrage of “perfect” scenes and images we see in our media-saturated society. Not only does this increase our desire for a perfect house, perfect kids, a perfect body and a perfect husband, it actually causes us to be discontent with our real lives, our real kids, our real bodies, and our real husbands.

So how can we apply this chapter to our real lives? We begin to look for the moments that matter. There are so many memories to make in the realms of motherhood, like when our infants take their first steps, playing a game of Uno as a family, movie nights cozied up in the living room. 

What are some things you can embrace today? What are some expectations you can let go of? 

Next week, we will discuss chapters two and three. I look forward to reading your thoughts about the Perfection Infection and high expectations. See you soon. 

Here is the link for Week 2′s video: http://youtu.be/3Bkf-S5Y5GQ