I visited a blog today briefly, and I got my dander up about the blogger's list of things that older mothers dislike about the way younger mothers do things. I made a comment, and due to a typo, I came across as horribly arrogant, even though the point I was trying to make was that I was trying very hard not to be arrogant in any parenting success that I may or may not have had thus far, since I thought the author of the post came across that way in her treatment of younger mothers. After I read my comment, I was horrified to discover that it looked like I was calling myself an "amazing mother" because Seth and I have had some minor successes at some high chair discipline issues! Nothing could be farther from the truth! I would never call myself an "amazing mother" with any seriousness. I'm barely holding it together too many days in a row to dare to give myself anything like that title.
I am continually humbled by how much I don't know and how far I have to go on this motherhood journey. The only point I was trying to make was that just because an older mother has had some success in training her children, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea to assume that she has had everything to do with their good behavior. The grace of God in giving her children with compliant temperments may be an important factor. I've seen moms who try everything they know how to do, follow all the books, and still have children that continually puzzle them with their bad behavior. I've seen moms who put in the same amount of effort and use the same techniques, and their children are generally well behaved. I would be very afraid to say that the first moms are doing something wrong just because their kids aren't as well behaved as the second group of moms.
The grace of God to moms in parenting should humble us on days when our children are acting like little angels. Some days they do; some days they don't. Good discipline is a great thing, but it's not the only thing. And if Seth happens to be having a great day, I need to be careful before I take all the credit for it. I hope that my friends and family will be gracious enough to me not to give me all the credit for it if he's having an awful day. =) I'm just a sinful, totally novice mommy doing the best I can at the moment.
But I did learn a lesson tonight. I should be very careful before I write a comment on a post that frustrates me. I can "speak" too hastily, write something that doesn't accurately represent what I was trying to say at all, and in the process, make a big mess that I can't fix because Blogger's comments are completely screwed up at the moment. Grrrr. =) I can unintentionally offend just as much as the original author because I'm not being careful and letting my frustration get the better of me. This is wrong, and it's something I need to work on. I think I'm going to refrain from commenting on other blogs for a while until I get my "tongue" in check. =)
What do you do when you run across a blog that frustrates you? Anybody else out there ever made an off the cuff comment that came back to haunt them? Anybody troll the Christian mommy blogger sites too much, too? I think I'm laying off them for awhile and sticking to my own safe little blog world. =)
1 comment:
Yep, you're right about good days and bad. Just this week, one day was great! Collin was wonderful and I was thinking, wow, we are finally getting somewhere! But then the next morning, it all went wrong and the whole day was a mess. In the end though, I realized that is mostly my fault, my bad attitude that had effected the day. It is just amazing to me how one day can be so good and next so bad!! You're right about being humble, it is only with God's grace that we do have those super great days and that we make it through the awful ones.
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