Good Parenting Post --Not At All Holiday Themed

I have discovered Google Reader. I like it! Finally I can read all the blogs I want to keep up with without taking a lot of time to do it. I can skim, skip, or read in-depth. I highly recommend it. And, if you're anything like me and still have no clue how to really use it, email me and I'll tell you what I've learned (or if you know more than me, which is highly likely, email me and tell me how you read and how you do it!).

Now, the parenting post.

I can't say it nearly as well as I think she did, so I'm just pointing you to her post. It's by Elizabeth Esther, who I follow. I don't agree with all the things she writes, but I think this post was well written. For those who don't like to click through to another blog, there are some excerpts below.

A few things that hit home to me:

• EE says she doesn't have time for theories, debates, and methods; she has too much laundry. She then says "It must be nice to have so much time on your hands that you can actually care about crap like that."
  
• Then she says she used to be one of those. And, it all sprang from her insecurity and a deep need to prove herself and and a longing for affirmation.
• She says kids need love more than anything.
• She says she doesn't want to live for others, including her children. But, instead she wants to be happy--and challenges the idea that moms can't seek their own happiness.

The reasons I love this post:

• I spend way too much time reading about those exact theories and doubting myself and my abilities and whether I'm doing it "the right way".
• I don't spend enough time doing the laundry (or the other things that I know would help my home run more smoothly and actually be productive).
• I know that often times I assert my convictions forcefully because I feel insecure in them or else feel I have to prove things to someone else. I want to be someone who lives her convictions in quietness and allows my life to speak for me (while only speaking if asked). This is a huge work in progress for me, a people pleaser.
• I have always asserted that I want to be a mom who loves her children and honors God with parenting, but who doesn't want to lose who I am in my children. I want to still pursue what makes me happy, have a great relationship with my husband (apart from my kids; after all, they'll be grown and gone from our home one day), and realize I'm valuable despite what my children do (or don't do). I think wrapping your life up in your children means you depend on them for credibility as a person and their success makes you either successful or a failure.

So, hop over the read the post if you have time and inclination. Or, just consider this my post on parenting.

Ah, freedom.