Recently someone invited me to join a book club. I was a little taken back by the invitation, I didn't really know what to say, and it embarrassed me a little but to admit that I have not read a single book since I had my daughter over a year ago. They seemed a little shocked by my confession, but it is what it is. I find some time to read, it's just that I mostly read articles on mothering or marriage or recipes, in the few minutes here and there when Noelle is contentedly playing with her toys on the floor, or for a few minutes when she is napping before I get dressed or make myself lunch or put dinner in the crock pot. Honestly, I don't know how mothers have time to read a book and hold on to a story line with only a few minutes here and there. It made me feel like I'm not doing such a good job being a multitasking mother because I can't do it. I know that was not the intent of my friend, but it made me want to do "better" for a little while. I put the word better in quotation marks because when I think back on that, I feel a bit silly, because thinking that I needed to be a "better" mother because I don't find time to read books (ones with more than 10 pages that is) or go to craft night or even fold and put away the laundry is silly. I am a good mother. So what if I haven't read a book in over a year, I've read every weekly article on my child's development since I found out I was pregnant, I don't usually find time to go to craft night because I like to be home to put my daughter to bed and spend the evening with my husband, I may currently have 4 baskets of clean laundry in my bedroom begging to be folded and put way, but you know what, that is not my priority right now, today I played with my daughter, I laid down on the floor next to her for 2 hours because she wanted me to. Yes I know that I need to fold the laundry, but it's not going to get done today, and that's ok, David and Noelle still love me, even if we have to fish through the laundry basket for a week or more before it gets put away. It's ok. I'm proud of the mothers that find time to read books and go to craft night and fold their laundry, they are good mothers, and so am I, even if I don't do those things. I do my best and I love my family and I can't do better than that.
First, yea that you are back to blogging! Second, I love this post! I struggle at times with feeling like I should be doing this, that, or the other just because other people think I should, but really we all are mothers in our own ways, meeting the needs of our individual families the best we can!
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