Connection

A few weeks ago, I remember having myself 'a day'. You probably know the type I'm referring too, not much was going right, my 4 year old was being extra challenging at bedtime and when getting ready in the morning, so I was almost grateful to get to log in and just do some work for the day and release the emotion from the previous 24 hours.

While sitting in a meeting waiting for it to begin, I had a chance to chat with another mom of a toddler and she was sharing how challenging her morning was. That she got to daycare dropped her kid off in tears (the mom that is) because nothing was going as planned, and her child was challenging her. Immediately I knew her plight. I said I've had the exact same day, let me tell you about mine! That was a 5 minute conversation but in that moment, we made a connection.

I stopped mentally beating myself up about how I can't get my kid to listen, or why I'm not a great parent, and I realized lots of people have these mornings. And what we really need in that moment is not to judge ourselves, but to reach out, because we're not alone! But it can feel emotionally charged and then shameful and guilt ridden once we go through it.

This isn't the first time it's happened, in fact, just earlier in the week, I meant to have a meeting with another coworker and instead of starting on our topic, for 10 minutes we connected on how our personal lives were going and talked about some challenging situations, I cried, she cried. We connected on our shared experience. And we said, where the heck is our mom's group? Everyone is going through these things on their own, but gosh wouldn't it just feel better to decompress with someone else and know you're not alone in your situation?

So here's my suggestion, dare to share.

Don't hang on to those things that make you feel like you're not doing it right. There's lots of people out there who feel the same, and it can feel alot better to commiserate, and even get a laugh or two. When we have a support network, none of these issues are so bad we can't work our way through them. Plus, we're not perfect, and sometimes it does take a village.

I grow a deeper and deeper respect for what my parents when through with every challenge I encounter with my kids. It's amazing what you're kids can teach you and all I've learned through raising my three little ones.