Today is Tuesday. I hate Tuesday. Because Tuesday is the day
I take my daughter to gymnastics class. And at gymnastics class, she makes me
look like a bad mom, just like her brother did when he took gymnastics at this
age.
My kids are generally very well-behaved and pleasant to be
around, but something about gymnastics class sends both of them into screaming,
whirling dervish, misbehaving, mom-embarrassing mode. Their gymnastics teacher
is incredibly patient and understanding, but even she has admitted that my
children are the worst-behaved kids she’s ever had in class.
They make me look like a bad mom.
Or, at least, they make me FEEL like a bad mom. After all,
what kind of mom can’t control her two-year-old for 45 minutes? What kind of
mom raises a hellion who won’t sit down for even 30 seconds to listen to
directions? What kind of mom has a kid who screams so loudly that no-one can
hear the teacher (a teacher who is used to making herself heard in a GYM)?
I’ll tell you what kind of mom: A mom who disciplines her
children, who teaches them to use polite words, who makes them say, “excuse me”
when they interrupt a conversation, who puts them in the naughty chair when
necessary, who reminds them to listen with their ears and not their mouths, and
who does not put up with tantrums. In a word: Me. And yet, when my daughter
gets to gymnastics, all that discipline and all those good manners go right out
the window. And there I am, tossed once again into “Bad Mom” territory.
I hate it. It’s embarrassing.
But you know what the worst part is? The worst part is that
it makes me spend more time worrying about what the other parents think and not
about what my daughter could be getting out of the class. I want to quiet her
down not so that she can have fun and learn something, or even so that the
other kids in the class can have fun and learn something, but so that I won’t
look bad in front of the other parents. And that kind of does make me a bad
mom.
So today, I vow to take off my bad attitude when I put on
those yoga pants, and to bring my daughter to class with my head high and my
expectations low. Today, my goal will be for my daughter to have at least 5
minutes of enjoying the class between tantrums. My goal will be to think only about
what she’s thinking and not about what the other parents are thinking.
Because BEING a good mom is a lot more important than LOOKING like a good mom.
love this-your a fantastic mom!
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