August 13, 2012

Toddler Guilt...

Sometimes I think that the moment you become a mother, guilt lands on your shoulders. There is always something that you can be doing better. Always something more that you can be doing.

When A was an infant, a lot of guilt surrounded breast feeding, making baby-food, cloth diapering, weight gain, tummy time, and sleeping!

Now that he is a toddler, the guilt is about what he is learning and doing. Is he in enough classes? Is he socialized enough? Do I talk to him enough, is he learning enough words? Is he being introduced to new people, places and things? Am I exposing him to a wide enough variety of foods? Are we giving him the headstart he needs to excel in life? school? art? sports?

Clearly I over think things a bit :) It's hard being a working mom! I love my job, but I feel guilty leaving him every day. Finding balance between working, teaching A everything I want him to know (!), and actually having some fun...not easy!

What I do know, however, is that he absolutely gets enough love. This is the most important thing, right? He gets enough hugs and kisses and squeezes! I have no guilt over the amount of time he plays outside and how many books we read to him every day. I know that his exposure to bubbles is exceptional and that he gets a wide variety of music to inspire him every day :)

Future Golf Pro? Are Golf lessons next?
For more ways to find balance in our crazy lives with children (or to commiserate about having none!)...head on over to Growing Up Geeky!

11 comments:

  1. Sometimes it feelslike it never ends. But holding on to the fact that you love him so much is such a great concrete thing to do! :)

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  2. If you are working and he is in daycare, I say that you are on a great road! I have been both a stay at home mom and a working mom and there are benefits to both. Working mom's have children who aren't afraid to be away from mom, so transition to elementary school is smoother! Their vocabularies also tend to be greater and their immune systems are built up already! You also tend to talk to each other more because there is more to talk about, like each of your days. Those are all great things! I promise that he is going to be great! :o)
    Carmen B from Adventures of the Triple B's

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    1. Thanks for the words of encouragement! I know I'm making good decisions for him, but it's hard sometimes to keep believing that...

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  3. Totally have the mommy guilt:) And I'm at home with him all day---I worry about the same things, so don't worry we all have it!

    -Julie
    http://www.thechirpingmoms.com

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  4. Ohhh Momma...all day every day. Yep ;)

    But ditto on getting enough love. That's a good way to think about it.

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    1. If nothing else our little ones will have tons of love :)

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  5. You are right, something about becoming a mom and guilt go hand in hand. We all need to give ourselves more credit for doing the best we can!

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  6. I can totally relate to worrying about making sure my kids are exposed to enough, doing enough, etc, but you're right - all that truly matters is that they are loved immensely! But those feelings of guilt are undoubtedly part of being a mom.

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