Happy Mother's Day

I tell my kids to not feel pressure on Mother’s Day. They don’t need to make the day perfect for me because it’s already perfect. I am a mother and have these beautiful adult children and stepchildren. I get to share my life with these fun, interesting and loving people; what a privilege. Of course, raising children is not all rainbows and unicorns. It’s crying when your child is diagnosed with dyslexia and ADD, it’s fighting for your child to get the best education, it’s forgiving when, in a fit of anger, your child (your baby) tells you “I hate you”.

Motherhood is taking the last flight out of Toronto to Victoria, to get home in time for your kids to wake up. It’s writing all night to meet a deadline at work, so that you can host a five years old’s Birthday party the next day.  It’s crawling out the upstairs window together to watch the night sky from the roof, it’s sleeping on the floor of the living room together with your dog on his last night.
 
I didn’t get it all right as a parent. None of us do. But we can keep getting better. We can keep learning about ourselves, healing the stuff that we are holding onto, taking responsibility for our side of the parent/child relationship. 

The best parenting advice I have is, “work on yourself”. When you get freer, clearer, more loving of yourself, you transform your parenting and your relationship with your children. It’s so worth the effort that internal work requires. So Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers, grandmothers, and parents who are both mothers and fathers.