I'm writing this post as I'm thinking about this picture & the common misconception that for a mom to be the best mom she can be, she needs to put herself dead last in order to take care of her children.
A lot of moms did not like my picture & they found my email address to let me know :X
For those that don't know....I have 3 kids, one with Asperger's. If my kids aren't bleeding, don't have broken bones & their basic needs are met then I firmly believe there is no reason to not make myself happy.
Love yourself. Not only will you flourish but your children will learn to love & take care of themselves is a normal thing.....because their mom does it.
Kids really do learn more by what their parents do than what you tell them. (I used to be told as a kid "do as I say & not as I do"...ummmm riiiiight)
I'll give myself as an example if you aren't buying into the whole making yourself a priority still.....
I used to sacrifice my well being, not only for my children but for everyone I knew. I was busy running for everyone & never said no.
This eventually lead to me to not really knowing who I was anymore. I felt lost & felt like a failure because of it.
Not taking time to get to know myself lead to depression. I was absolutely useless to myself & my family. There were days where I just lay in bed, sending my kids to my dad's house next door for them to be taken care of so I could just sleep.
Heck it got so bad that our bird at the time died because I forgot to feed & water it.
I was so run down, so lost. I was very hard on myself for not being the perfect "Supermom" that I completely shut down.
The big wake up call was when I got into my SUV & could just envision myself ramming it into a tree to kill myself.
It scared me so much that I opened up to my best friend & my husband. They both got me to see someone.
Shortly after I went to a convention, where I signed up for a lot of self help type classes. For some reason it finally clicked that I needed to love myself & treat myself as my own best friend.....and there was nothing wrong with doing so.
I know my story was a bit on the extreme side but hopefully it can open some eyes.
I still think that we put to much pressure on ourselves & others to be that "Supermom". Hell, look at Pinterest. That place makes me feel wonderfully inferior & that's why if you follow me there I only use it to pin my stuff lol
There is no need to be a martyr or give up every single thing or not say no if you are stretched too thin.
Btw, there is a reason if air masks come down in a plane that they want you to put yours on first. You need to take care of you in order to be able to take care of others.
**This wasn't really defending myself from the haters......hopefully it can give them and all of you a reason why I feel the way I do about how we all need to take care of ourselves. We need to learn to not be so hard on ourselves & others too.
We only get one life & it's meant to be enjoyed.