It’s time to celebrate our victories this past week, big and small. Better yet, they are all big. For kids, there are no small victories. And shouldn’t it be the same for moms?
I know I can be hard on myself as a mom. I tend to dwell on the moments and the mayhem that make me feel, well, less than competent: the disaster grocery shopping trips, the cleaning projects that never get done, the important to-do’s that somehow fall out of my brain until it’s too late. (My husband says this last problem would not be a problem if I would just learn to make lists. I tell him I’m working on it.)
I can see that my oldest has this tendency to be hard on herself. Already, at the tender age of four.
But this week, she accomplished something big–she conquered the slide at the pool.
Thursday was her last swimming lesson. At the end of each lesson, the kids each take a turn sliding down the slide into the pool, where the instructor stands ready to catch them. My daughter had always been too scared. But the morning of that last class, during breakfast, she announced to me that she would be going down the slide.
I had my own challenge to conquer. This would be the first swimming class that I would be taking all three to the pool. Prior to that, I had always arranged for a friend of mine to meet us there and help entertain my two year old and ten month old, or I had left my two year old with my mother-in-law. This time, I was on my own with my three girls.
I managed to get them packed up and to the pool in time, then through the showers and out to the pool deck–with 60 seconds to spare! A victory in and of itself. As her instructor led my daughter into the water, I wondered if she would lose her resolve when the time came.
I turned my attention to occupying my two younger daughters. Keeping my 10 month old confined in her stroller, I walked around the rec center, and read books to my two year old. I was afraid she would make a huge scene when she realized she was not going in the pool herself, but she was perfectly content!
The half hour passed more quickly than I ever thought it would, and we headed back to the pool deck for slide time.
My four year old climbed up the ladder, and hesitated at the top. “Oh, no,” I thought. “She’s not going to do it after all. She will be crushed.” Then, suddenly, she was down the slide and in her instructor’s arms!
She clambered out of the pool and raced over to us. “Sweetie!!” I wrapped my soaking daughter in a bear hug. “I’m so proud of you!!!”
Her triumphant smile was priceless.
My four year old is enjoying that awesome feeling of accomplishing something difficult for her. Reflecting on this week, I’m taking a moment to enjoy my own growing sense of competence as a mom. God is giving us both all that we need for success–our abilities, our opportunities, our determination. Yes, there are blunders. There are disasters. There are massive messes. But not today. Today it’s time to celebrate.
