Sunday was an absolutely awesome day. I spoke in the morning at an event called Le Mood – The Festival of Unexpected Jewish Learning and Culture. The tag line for the conference: Dare To Be Curious (love it)! 1000 awesome people came for a day of learning, and broadening horizons. I brought my expertise as a success coach and entrepreneur, and my talk was called: The Role of Chutzpah in Business, Marriage, Motherhood and Life.
Aaaah Chutzpah. One of those universal words in Yinglish!
This is my boy. He is good and sick. I am getting on a plane in 24 hours to fly to Saskatchewan for a keynote speaking engagement. It’s bad enough that I’m missing his parent teacher interviews for the first time ever (hubby is going without me). Now this. I feel like the worst mother on the planet leaving.
So, today, instead of providing strength to my community, I will be needing strength FROM my community.
Send hugs, coffee and a speedy recovery.
By Guest Blogger Shannon Henrici
I was reading another woman’s blog the other day and I was struck by the negative comments that flooded her blog site. I couldn’t believe all the passed judgments, and the harsh words. But then, I began to think of all of the times I have quietly passed judgment on other moms. I was a little ashamed of myself and thought, “Why can’t we all just get along?”
I thought of the old childhood saying, “When you point your finger at someone, three are pointing back at you.” I know that I am not perfect. I have to remember that other moms are not perfect. We are all just learning as we go. How many times have you heard judgmental words from another mother, “Can you believe she put him in daycare 6 weeks after she gave birth?” Or “My child would never act like THAT!” Besides, by which standards are we comparing other people? Our standards? Society’s standards? Which child is perfect? Which mother is perfect?
And there are so many topics that divide women today; working vs. staying at home, to vaccinate vs. to not, breastfeeding vs. formula, and list goes on. I find more than ever, instead of coming together to support one another, we are seeing quite a bit of these “Mommy Wars.”
By Guest Blogger Kami Lewis Levin
I’m really trying to take a more Zen approach to life. I’d like to be able to let things roll. I’d like to be able to kick back and relax. I’d like to enjoy a stress-free, yell-free household. Those specific behaviors, however, appear to go against the essence of my being. It turns out, I’m pretty type-A. With a pinch of OCD. And a tendency to get worked up. Like crazy worked up. Generally about really dumb stuff.
But THIS is not about your run of the mill dumb stuff. THIS is important. THIS could alter the empirical nature of my existence on this planet. And although it is very much all about me, THIS might well influence other young moms out there to follow along in my footsteps. Or not. Much depends on your point of view.
Hi Ladies.
I had a few things I wanted to cover today, so this one will be a bit of a mixed bowl.
I firstly want to thank WordPress (www.wordpress.com) for choosing yesterday’s blog on GUILT as one of the featured articles of the day. It brought me insane amounts of traffic, and I was excited beyond belief. One of my Facebook friends wrote, “If you build it, They will come.” This made me teary. I write from my heart, day after day, and I visualize a whole bunch of us women sitting in a room together just discussing the issues. I feel connected. I do.
I also wanted to share what happened Monday evening. It will have a point at the end. It’s not just all drama, so stay with me…
Monday evening, my entire family was over for dinner. We were eating, talking, enjoying. My two boys were running wild in the living room, as they always do. Next thing I know, someone is crying. Hello!!! This happens five times a day! But this time was different. I picked up my two year old to comfort him, and next thing I know, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, he was turning blue, and he was lifeless in my arms. In fact, he then slid right out of my arms directly onto my hard wood floor, as I wasn’t expecting to receive his body in this nature. I picked him up off the floor but he was dead weight, and not moving.
So, our brains constantly torture us to the tune of ; I should be spending more time with my kids, cooking healthier meals, calling friends more regularly, returning emails, working harder, going to the gym more often, being nicer to people, coming home earlier from the office, baking more, eating better… Oh the Guilt! Oh the Guilt!
Actually, guilt does serve its purpose on occasion. It sometimes guides us when things go wrong in our lives, when we’re not working hard enough, or when we’ve done something wrong, for example. But us ladies truly take guilt to a whole new level. I would even go so far as to call it our disease. We suffer from guilt about so many things. Instead of recognizing all the wonderful things we do for those around us, we let the things we CAN’T do completely overtake our mind. This is a sad thing ladies. Sad. But I will tell you, I suffer from this disease as well! And it’s chronic.
I sold my business three years ago to be home with my kids, because I was feeling so guilty leaving them all the time. Now, I feel guilty if I can’t be at all the carpool pickups for my little son. Or I feel guilty if I want to take time alone. I feel guilty if I miss a dinner with the kids due to a school meeting. I feel guilty if I go to the 7:30am kick boxing class. I feel guilty ALL THE TIME. And I don’t know why. After all, I think I’m a pretty good mom, daughter, and wife. I just can’t turn off that guilt switch.
So, I received a call the other day to teach a weekly course (4 hours a week) on entrepreneurship and mentoring… for free. Everything I do, by the way, be it giving sales and marketing seminars in October, to the stuff I describe below, I do it all for free. Cuz I love it.
The old me; “Of course I’ll do it.”
The new me, “No thank you. Not right now.”
