A couple questions before we get started:
Do you get so burnt out on motherhood you view every task/event as “I have to do…”?
0%Absolutely!
0%No ma’am! Everyday is a gift!
0%By Sunday, yes.
Does every task feel like a chore?
0%I’ll never admit it, but yes 😭
0%You’d think Cinderella was my given name!
0%Umm no! I pride myself on my Mary Poppins outlook.
If you answered any variation of yes, you are not alone, my friend ❤️
Until recently, I felt this all day, everyday. I started building resentment and I harbored so much internal anger, I did everything with disgust in my heart.
I'm here to tell you that one simple shift in my own thinking changed all of that in a split second! Here's how I did it.
REFRAMING MY "I HAVE TO..."
My first step to changing my stinking thinking was changing my mindset on what I had to do.
Instead of thinking "I have to" I started thinking "I GET to"
Let me give a real life example so you know what I mean by that:
My eldest is in kindergarten, 2 weeks ago was her 100th day of school. Her teacher sent home a brief notice on her project that is due that day.
I asked my husband "hey, babe. Can you read me that notice from her teacher about her 100th day of school? We just need her to bring in the small 100 items and a blank poster board or do we need to put together the poster board?"
In true, confident husband fashion he replied "it says here to just bring them in."
Don't do as I did. I believed him! I had no reason to not trust my husband's reading comprehension skills. So I took it as truth and went about my Monday (project was due Thursday).
Fast forward to Wednesday morning: I get a reminder notification in her class app from her teacher saying that the 100th day of school project is due tomorrow and she attached pictures of examples prior year students have completed.
Much to my horrific surprise, these pictures were of decorated and completed projects!!!
**queue the panic attack**
I ask Genevieve before she leaves for school "ok, what shape do you want your poster board in so I can cut it while you're at school? I'm just going to cut it and paint it so it's dry when you get home and then you can glue your pompoms on when you get home."
"I want a flower, mommy"
Tell me why my lyin' ass didn't end up doing this until my husband was in the damn pickup line at 2:30 waiting for her to get out of school?!
I'm a glutton for punishment and absolutely love a good moment of panic!
Here's the kicker
Genevieve gets home from school. I am almost done painting it (thank you Lord above for paint sticks that dry instantly 🙌🏻).
I grab the Elmers clear glue and pompoms and G goes to town on them.
When she's done, I go to smash them down a little bit to make sure they stick, right?
They. All. Came. Off.
Here's where the reframing came in
It's fine, I have tacky glue, that'll work.
Wrong again.
They also fell right off.
So, I rush to Walmart without any hesitation to buy a hot glue gun even though I know we have one already I just have no idea where it is on such short notice.
Thankfully, Walmart comes in clutch with the super charged hot glue guns and I rush back home to glue them on before G also has a full blown panic attack at 5 years old 😂
With the help of my husband (who is the sole reason I'm in this last minute rush mode), we glue all those pompoms back on and this time, they stay!!!
As I finally sat down to work, something hit me.
Despite the panic and lots of complaining, I was so happy that I got to do this for my daughter.
It helped that I had numerous flashbacks to my parents doing the same thing for me a shameful amount of times. Mind you, Walmart was still open 24 hours back in my school days so my dad had to run out at after 11 PM more times than I probably even remember.
Thanks, daddy❤️
My daughter wakes up in the morning and is pleasantly surprised that I managed to pull off getting them to stay.
She's so pleased and in love with her poster board that nothing else that morning mattered.
The pride in me came when my daughter was featured on her school's website holding her flower for all to see! Let me tell you, hers stood out the most out of everyone in that picture. It was so bright and beautiful and I'm not just saying that because it was technically my project 😂
Without further or do, I give you Genevieve's (cough cough my 💁🏻♀️) 100th day of school project
In case you didn't gather it by the title, I will be posting one of these a week on Sundays.
I think it's a beautiful way to start my week in gratitude for the life I've been gifted today.
I hope you all can take a little bit of time today to reflect on your I get to moment from this week
One more poll before we part
Can you commit to the challenge of recognizing an “I get to” moment of your week?
0%With all due respect, miss me with that 🙅🏻♀️
0%YAAAASSSS QUEEN 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
0%I’ll give it my best try 😊
Talk to soon, beautiful 😘
I was all over projects with my daughter. Funny how you said G’s project. (cough, cough). Sometimes I even feared that “they would know” I helped, a lot. But after I got the pleasure to see other children’s projects, it was clear they had parental help too.
It’s those I Get To moments that memories are made of.
And, as more time went on and I relinquished control, and allowed her to take more part in the projects, I found out my daughter clearly had more artistic capabilities that I myself wished I had.
Thanks for these memories Aut Mom. You and G should be very proud.