Seldom, do moms prioritize protecting their amazing qualities in the midst of parenting, especially in the early years. Our strengths, talents, dreams, and accomplishments seem to take the back seat in the name of honoring our roles as mothers. I have learned to redefine what honoring my parenting role means. Here’s more on how to honor who you are in the midst of motherhood
Accept yourself
Honoring yourself starts with accepting yourself as a whole. The good and the bad. The wins and the losses. It doesn’t mean that you have to ignore the changes and improvements that you want to make in your life. It just means that you make the changes from a place of self-love rather than self-hatred.
Protect your qualities
Truth be told, there are so many areas of a woman’s life that motherhood changes for the better. However, there is still this great misconception that a woman has to hide or forget about some of her qualities, that make her who she is in order to focus better on being a mom. I believe that you can choose to maintain qualities that make you who you are and still be a good mother. I did not find it to be an either-or situation. In fact, I was an angry mom who snapped a lot when I tried to change who I was in the name of being a good mom.
Pursue your dreams
Another way to honor who you are as a person in the midst of motherhood is to pursue your God-given dreams and cultivate your God-given talents (it is also giving honor back to him). Pursuing your dreams can help you preserve a sense of self in your motherhood journey, as it can be so easy to lose yourself in the guise of motherhood. You can pursue your dreams and still be a good mom.
“You can protect the amazing qualities that make you who you are. Your strengths and talents. Your sense of humor, your style. The life lessons you have learned, the contributions you have made, your accomplishments, your principles, and your sense of self. You can choose to maintain and enhance the best of yourself, for you and your baby” ~ Joelle Jay and Amy Kovarik
Be a mother in a way that honors who you are so that you can be a mother without losing yourself. How do you honor who you are in the midst of mothering your children?
thank you for sharing this Busi I was finding it very hard to peruse my dreams as a mother, i had high expectations from my husband I sort forced him into something he is not interested in but now I’m learning that we all have different aspirations
You are welcome, Mandy. I also had to learn that our aspirations can be different in marriage and that is okay. Ours is to support our spouses and show up for our dreams too. I hope that the journey of pursuing your dreams as a mom is getting better.
Great post Busi. It’s so important to not loose ourselves. Indeed it doesn’t need to be either or