We all have days as parents where you think, I am awful and I totally suck. You get really hard on yourself. You wish that you could figure it all out, that you hadn’t lost your temper, or that you could just figure out the answer to the issue at hand. But then there are these moments that you feel so very successful. You think, huh, I am responsible for what just transpired here. Because of me, my child has a good head on his/her shoulders. I had one such moment yesterday.
I was in the kitchen. Jack was in the living room playing. You cannot see from either room into the other. I opened the fridge and suddenly strawberries and blueberries came flying out. The strawberries stayed in their box. The blueberries met a different fate. They went everywhere. I sighed, and thought, “really?” It was trying to make lunch, I was very hungry, and I just didn’t need that right then. In the big picture, it wasn’t a big deal, shame on me for thinking that way. I know. I quickly caught myself for feeling that way. Who cares? It is a small mess. I squatted down to clean. Jack came around the corner into the kitchen. He saw me with a handful of blueberries, squatting, picking up more. He said “uh oh! Clean!” And started helping me pick them up. I said, “You can give those to momma, I will throw them out.” He walked right past me and said “gar” meaning garbage, and threw them out himself. He continued to help me and throw them out himself until every single blueberry was off the floor.
I was so proud of him. I was so proud to be his mom. He saw I could use some help and jumped right on in. He knew exactly what needed to be done. He didn’t want me to help him do the cleaning. I had my own task to worry about. Both of us know how to throw things in the garbage can.
It was one of those moments where I thought, “wow I am raising a great kid. I am really doing something right here.” He is a helper. He saw me in need of assistance and didn’t hesitate to jump in. I have a helper on my hands!
I love those moments in parenthood. I savor them. I thought about it a lot yesterday. Sometimes I feel like I don’t clean enough. Keeping up with a toddler boy is tough. I will clean and not five minutes later, it will be a mess again. I am always trying to straighten things up though. I am constantly washing the counters and I am constantly vacuuming. Jack plays cleaning and vacuuming. As a matter of fact he is getting a real vacuum for Christmas. This stand up dirt devil that he can handle. He can actually help me vacuum now! Our Dyson is too heavy for him. That all goes back to my initial paragraph. As parents, we often feel like we are not doing enough and we are not good enough. I think, though, that in reality I probably am good enough, even though I am my hardest critic. Sometimes, a moment like this is all we need to step back and say, yes, I give my best and this is the result! Bravo!
What have been your proud parenting moments? Where you step back and pat yourself on the back, because despite all the tough moments, there is a moment of sunshine where you see that you have done an amazing job? Are you too hard on yourself usually? How do you feel when you are able to relax that feeling a little?
Not a photo of the blueberries, but we did spend some time duck watching yesterday. Another wonderful moment for me. He loves animals so very much!
There were a bunch of “ducks”out there, even though they didn’t show up in the photo. They were actually geese, but I am not one for semantics in a lovely momma/son moment. They can be ducks if he wants them to be ducks
Nicole M. VandeBoom 
My girls are turned one last week, so I haven’t had many proud moments, yet. But, 2 nights ago, we returned to our babysitter bragging how my daughter signed to her the words “milk” and “more”. In fact, that was the first time she signed “more”. That made me proud! Great post, sounds like you are doing a good work raising your little man.
Hold on to your horses, this 2nd year, after they turn 1, is filled with SO much action. I seriously cannot believe that mine is going to be 2 so soon. I feel like his 1st birthday was just a month ago. You’re going to have so many proud moments this year. That is awesome about the signs! That has to be so very exciting when they do their first sign. I was really hoping to teach him baby sign, but he didn’t really take to it. He started just talking instead. I eventually gave up with the sign language. Can I live vicariously through you? 😉 I really think baby sign is amazing! I tried to hard too. But each kid is different. And thank you for the compliment. I hope I am doing something right, I think we all try our best and hope it is the right thing.