Tuesday, January 29, 2008

beginning to answer the big questions

Posted by Tracy Wainwright at 2:41 PM
So, how do we embrace motherhood to most effectively raise our children and maintain value outside of motherhood? Such a question, of course, does not have a simple answer. But it does have an answer. One of the main parts of the answer is balance. We need to work like a thermostat. We’d like to keep life at a comfortable 73 degrees. Outside influences have a major impact on the temperature, so we are constantly having to work at regaining balance. When it’s hot, we have to turn the air conditioning on. When we have a newborn, we have to give up time doing other things (almost everything else) for a time to take care of the baby. A newborn has you working like it’s over a hundred degrees outside. As we adjust to being a mom and the baby grows, we don’t have to work as hard. When it’s cold, we have to turn the heat on. When we start a new job, or are planning a big event, we have to get help taking care of our children. And sometimes the unit breaks down. There’s a family crisis, illness, or other event that erupts everything. We call in help until the unit is back functioning properly.
Most of these events occur infrequently, with the mean temperature not being far off from our goal. But sometimes it seems more difficult to maintain balance on a daily basis. With responsibilities including housekeeping, taking care of our children, maintaining a relationship with our husband, sometimes work outside of the home, community and/or church involvement, and other family responsibilities it’s easy to see how we get lost. But, if we don’t do regular maintenance to the unit (take care of ourselves) we’re more likely to break down – more frequently and more devastatingly. Most of us have heard the saying, “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,” which testifies to the effect that we moms have on our family. What we also need to realize is that if momma ain’t well, she can’t take care of everyone else to keep them well. However, we usually end up wearing ourselves out fulfilling our multitude of responsibilities.

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

beginning to answer the big questions

So, how do we embrace motherhood to most effectively raise our children and maintain value outside of motherhood? Such a question, of course, does not have a simple answer. But it does have an answer. One of the main parts of the answer is balance. We need to work like a thermostat. We’d like to keep life at a comfortable 73 degrees. Outside influences have a major impact on the temperature, so we are constantly having to work at regaining balance. When it’s hot, we have to turn the air conditioning on. When we have a newborn, we have to give up time doing other things (almost everything else) for a time to take care of the baby. A newborn has you working like it’s over a hundred degrees outside. As we adjust to being a mom and the baby grows, we don’t have to work as hard. When it’s cold, we have to turn the heat on. When we start a new job, or are planning a big event, we have to get help taking care of our children. And sometimes the unit breaks down. There’s a family crisis, illness, or other event that erupts everything. We call in help until the unit is back functioning properly.
Most of these events occur infrequently, with the mean temperature not being far off from our goal. But sometimes it seems more difficult to maintain balance on a daily basis. With responsibilities including housekeeping, taking care of our children, maintaining a relationship with our husband, sometimes work outside of the home, community and/or church involvement, and other family responsibilities it’s easy to see how we get lost. But, if we don’t do regular maintenance to the unit (take care of ourselves) we’re more likely to break down – more frequently and more devastatingly. Most of us have heard the saying, “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,” which testifies to the effect that we moms have on our family. What we also need to realize is that if momma ain’t well, she can’t take care of everyone else to keep them well. However, we usually end up wearing ourselves out fulfilling our multitude of responsibilities.

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