Results tagged “guilt” from Momtourage: Blogger Knows Best

My gal pal has breast fed her new baby girl for the first 6 months of her life and now she is switching to formula (and still pumping) because she's going back to work...unless you know of a great wet nurse.  That could be the new recession proof career!  She feels so guilty about not being able to nurse for at least 18 months as she did her first two however, I say she's lucky to have had this time with her.  With the current male-cession (it's mostly men out of work), women are putting in longer and longer days.  It feels like years since any of my friends have been able to breast feed longer than 6 weeks.  Nevertheless, the baby is experiencing nipple confusion so mom is feeling even guiltier about her decision.  I keep reminding her, you do what you can when you can.  Just think, if she stays home from work and loses her job then she and the baby can spend endless hours starig into each others eyes.....in the park....in their tent....'cause they'll be homeless.  Do what you can when you can ladies and when you can't, there's always Dr.Browns.  Anybody have any other bottles to recommend for nipple confusion??.....my husband still suffers from it.  (ha ha)

In a few hours my son and husband leave town for a long weekend to visit my (out)laws. I have not had a weekend alone, in my home in many years. It was waaay before S was born, and even then, I truly cant recall the last time I was in my house for any substantial amount of time ALONE. And boy do I have BIG plans!

by Kris

Because it is my best friend's 40th birthday and because there is a winter special on (buy 3 nights, get 2 free) I have arranged to spend five nights with her at a yoga retreat in the Berkshires. If you had asked me last week how I felt about it I would have said, "Excited!" But as the day of departure draws near, my forebodings increase. It's not the expense or the thought of treacherous winter travel that bothers me. And I always have a great time when my friend and I are together. In fact it's one of those rare relationships where we can be out of touch for months, even years and just pick up as if we had lunch on the previous day. The problem is that I have never been away from my two sons (ages 4 and 5) for that long before. Frankly, I'm scared.

by oneofhismoms

He's sitting there in an ocean of wrapping paper.  Pouting.  He's opened the big car and the pirate ship and the play dough ice cream station.  "And what else?"  He's looking for more.  You give him the line you've always given him, "That's a lot of presents, honey.  Aren't we lucky to have so many things?"  You know for sure somewhere, probably within miles of where your three-year-old pouts, there are children who would be completely content with only one of these toys.  How did this happen?  Where is the re-wind button?

"The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

You know, the whole Sarah Palin nomination for GOP VP has really got me thinking.  Every time I see her, she's posing with her husband and her five children...she's pro-life if you haven't heard already.  Well, she must be pro-babysitter and pro-daycare too because who is raising her children while she's busy being Governor of Alaska and now VP hopeful - campaigning all over the place?  Why have a big family if you're not intending to raise them?  Are all these pictures just more lies being propagated by our society that we can have it all?  That we can have whatever we want:  tons of children, a happy family and a fabulous career?  Is that even possible?

by Jennifer Satterwhite

I will admit that I have always been thankful that I have been able to be a stay-at-home mom for the last 14 years. I wanted to be with my kids. I loved having them home with me. (Though, admittedly, the preschool/part-time years were a nice recovery break.) I will also admit that when asked "What do you do?" I always heard myself reply, "Nothing. I just stay home with the kids." Nothing? Nothing? Isn't that sort of the equivalent of when being asked, "Are you hurt?" replying with, "Not at all! I just broke 7 bones, severed a finger, have a concussion and need 174 stitches." Staying at home is not NOTHING. When talking to other women who worked outside the home, I felt a mixture of guilt that I did not have to work a 9-5 job quickly followed by shame that I was not working outside the home. Guilt for being a stay-at-home mom.

In my position as the Consulting Group Director for Hybrid Mom Consulting Media group (www.hybridmom.com), I have interesting and rewarding challenges every single day. I am a work at home mom, but I am also responsible to an ever expanding network of other work at home moms who join our organization as consultants, providing freelance work to growing businesses, and our members, entrepreneurial moms who need assistance in promoting their products and services and helping their businesses grow. So, in a nutshell, my work at home work is to help other work at home moms work. And that, my friends, is a lot of work!

At Hybrid Mom, we are trying to hone and fine tune the delicate balance that is life for today's mother. We strive to provide innovative strategies to enrich the way moms work, play and live! The Hybrid Mom staff all work from their respective homes. Ninety nine percent of our members and consultants work from home. We all have children. We all have minds. We all have creativity, talent, gifts and wisdom to share with the world. And, unfortunately, we all have little miniature master manipulators that continue to make us feel guilty about the way we live our lives.

i am so fortunate to have found wonderful yoga teachers here in austin. so a shout out is in order to mandy who teaches from the anusara lineage, she encourages me to open up to grace and to "loop" my kidneys of all things! she is an alignment fanatic, and thinks nothing of pulling up her yoga pants above her knees to illustrate what the thigh looks like in "outer spiral".angela is a flat-out goddess! a generous soul with abundance of information about yogic philosophy, anatomy, and how to apply them to our practice. her familial, un-intimidating manner results in packed classes that feel like private lessons. she focuses me to notice how postures feel from the inside out and keeps my ego in check by reminding me that my ability to get into parsva bakasana doesn't make me a good person.

Mother's Day is fast approaching and this year, I'm begging my husband for the ultimate gift and it doesn't cost a thing:  time.  Time with my family.  Not even time alone.  I just want him to pack a picnic lunch and go to the park with our daughter and play and have fun.  I say this not to be melodramatic nor because I'm trying to be one of those self sacrificing, "super moms".  I say this because I've just given up on getting any really decent gifts for Mother's Day.  Let's just say that over the five short years I've been a mom, I've received some of the most horrible gifts on Mother's Day.  See below:

My father actually thought this was a cute idea.  Because I like gardening so much why wouldn't I appreciate a garden gnome that flashes my neighbors??  The kids think it's a riot.  Over the years they've written various things on the tush like:  blow me; suck it; go ahead I'm easy.  Delightful.  Just what I want in my front garden.  We live in the city garden gnomes just don't work here.  Finally, over the winter break this year, somebody smashed it.  Aaawww.  What a shame.  Not. 

I know everyone feels guilted and pressured into feeling the need give their kids everything and provide them with every gadget that makes their lives so bloody easy that they're thoroughly unprepared for the world anymore but for god's sake if you really want to help your kids try saying no to them once in a while. Try preparing them for the real world by giving them a healthy dose of disappointment every now and then....this way they'll learn to live a life of lowered expectations and they'll ultimately be much happier.

I actually met a mother this summer who is so afraid to use the word no to her child that she lets her run wild wherever she is.....even in parking lots. "I don't like to say the word no to her because I don't want to hamper her creativity. She could be an artist you know."

"Oh really? I think little Picasso was just hit by a car."