When competition isn't good

I’ve always loved a good competition. Whether it’s to be the first one to finish a race, a cheering for my favorite team during a great basketball game or just playing a board game with my family…I think it’s healthy. BUT there are times when competition isn’t good. Times when it isn’t healthy. And one of those times is competition within motherhood. I just don’t understand it. It doesn’t help anyone and instead just puts an invisible wall up around us.

There seems to be a constant battle of one-upping each other within motherhood. A battle of whose child is the most advanced or best dressed or emotionally stable. We argue about everything from the best car seats & how long to have a child rear facing to cloth diapering vs. disposable to breast feeding vs. formula feeding.

But what seems to be forgotten about in this competition is that we all strive to do the best with what we have. We all want to give our child the best, but what I might deem the best choice, might not be the same as what you might choose.

AND guess what??

That’s all right. It’s perfectly all right because we are all in this together.

That’s right ladies…WE ARE ALL IN THIS THING CALLED MOTHERHOOD TOGETHER.

We all LOVE our children and are doing our best. You don’t know me and I don’t know you or your personal circumstances or how you were raised or your belief system so I trust that you are doing what is best for your child. And all that I ask of you is that you trust me too. Trust that the choices that I make for my child are the best for us and for my household and for the man that I hope to raise my son to become.

And I ask that we all start supporting each other and our choices instead of competing with each other. Becoming a mother is hard. One of the hardest things that any one of us can do and instead of tearing each other down, why don’t we concentrate on building each other up instead?

So all that I ask of you today is to reach out to another mother and praise them about something that they are doing. Call up your friend and comment on something in their parenting style that you admire in them…whether it’s how little Johnny is doing in school or how amazing it is that little Suzie started walking this week or even just telling them they are doing a great job raising their children. Just do it. RIGHT NOW!