I have started to re-read, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die. Which is totally a kooky book, but it provides good reference for me to turn around my emotions. Some of the book, I disagree with, and skip over her pyscho babble, but other parts help me remember, that I really don't want to spend my day yelling at my son, telling him if you do that you'll get hurt and I won't feel bad. I don't really want to be the mom that says, you're doing it wrong. I normally just use the reference in the back, but I have started to re-read the book this time. But in the back reference, I found "angry.... forgive, love, peaceful, calm, merciful". Seriously I needed to read what were opposite emotions of anger, so I could work on being the opposite.
So here are my pyscho babble sentences.
- I chose to love my children. Even if they cy, they can be upset. I can be upset. But I still choose to love them.
- I choose to be peaceful, to set a tone of peace for the house. Even if everyone is "bored"/"having a hard day". I can invite peace.
- I can choose to be calm, even if I'm hungry, everyone else is hungry, and dinner is late. I can be calm, I can teach my child to be clam.
- I can be merciful, even if I knew such an activity would end in tears. I can be merciful. I can love my children no matter what they do. I can forgive them when they are disobedient.
- I can choose to allow my children to be upset/whiny/hurt. They are in control of their emotions, I can be in control of mine. I am their mother, I love them, but they can be upset, they are their own person. They have their own agency.
- I did not know all the responsibilities that would come with parenting. But I choose to be a mother, I can meet the obligations, I can choose to meet the challenges, without being angry.
That is is enough of a journey for one day. I'm not sure if I really want to publish, but yet I am. Part of me wants to say I'm not really as crazy as I sound, and part of me says, I am. I guess it depends on the day, the time, the hour, some days, some hours I'm crazy. Other times I'm just me. Overall I'll tell you I'm tired. I don't want to clean, I want to watch TV, or sleep. But I am cooking dinner every night, cleaning the kitchen, and doing the laundry. In fact I even clean up toys, and vacuum. Yesterday I even washed the sliding glass door, plus I've been organizing. I guess I've done a lot other than watch TV. I just don't want to clean the bathrooms. I even cleaned my laundry room/storage room. But please... don't make me do anything. I just want to sleep and watch tv.
I love reading your blog Le! I can so relate to this post. I am really tired to6, I think all moms with little kids are tired. And, I am not a yeller, or at least I never was until about 6 months ago, when sibling rivalry hit. Now, I swear I yell ALL THE TIME. But lately, I just try raising my voice enough to get the attention, then lower it quite a bit to make my point that I am calm and not angry, but that the kids need to stop NOW. It's not always working for them, but it helps to keep me a bit saner, and I don't feel like I am yelling all the time.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, to make you feel better, in one of my psych classes years ago, the teacher said to have an overall positive relationship with someone, you need to have 70% positive interactions, and 30% or less negative interactions. So, it's not that hard to do with your kids, I am sure you do a fine job keeping up with positive moments :)
Sorry this was a novel.
You are really a great mom. Please give yourself some credit! God trusts you and gave you this opportunity and you are doing great. We love you! Hang in there mom!
ReplyDeleteI never said I was a bad mom, or that I didn't think the Lord is proud of me or didn't trust me. I know the Lord loves me, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want me to better. I'm sure he wants me to be happy, and I can't be happy being angry. And I know he does not want me feel depressed, depressed is not a feeling that comes from him. And I have to do something to wake up from the fog I've been in for what seems forever. Most days I feel like someone else is in my body.
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