One of my kids once asked me, “Why do we hardly have any sleepovers? Can we go on a sleepover?
I looked at my 8 year old and I said, “We are so lucky, our whole life is one big sleepover!”
And that’s the truth. Being the mother of 9 boys and 2 girls ka“h, my children have stretched my limits in ways that I never imagined, including living the life of one big sleepover! They’ve taught me that my job as a mother is not to make them into who I want them to be but rather to embrace who they are, as they are, the way Hashem created them. They are not my report card and it’s not about me; they each have their own talents and strengths, my job is to help them use it to succeed.
I never imagined I’d be the mother of a baseball team or nearly a minyan. But what I’ve learned on the job has made me who I am. Granted, boys don’t whine. But there’s plenty of other stuff they do that’s not for the faint of heart. I love pink, bows, dolls and dollhouses. After the fourth dollhouse was once again used as a stool and parking garage and dolls were missing too many limbs too many times, I came to terms with the fact that I had to learn their game. And really that’s how it all is; to be there for each of them is to learn their game. To try to understand life through their eyes and value their strengths, so that I can help each child succeed.
Continue reading “Don’t follow someone else’s ideas!”
Little Yellow Notepad 