How I’m Becoming A Better Mom In 30 Days

I’m a failure as a mother.

Oh, I wish I could smile and laugh and tell you that being a mom is the easiest, most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, all while having perfect hair, the cutest outfit and my lipstick just so, but I can’t lie.

Sometimes it’s tough.

Sometimes I am overflowing with love for my boys that suddenly transforms to instant rage within a few seconds without any warning. Remember my Mommy Dearest moment – minus the lashings?

Friends, I need to become a better mom.

Do you ever feel like that? (Please tell me you do.)

The truth is that I know I’m not alone in this. I’m pulling the veil away on this supermom-I-love-every-drop-of-this-parenting-thing charade. We are fooled by articles, social media, and TV shows that tell us being a parent is easy. And when we don’t reach those proposed standards, shame and disappointment set in. I more often worry about saving money for my boys’ therapy sessions instead of saving for college.

When I was invited to join in on the 30 Day Kindness Challenge, I felt as if someone had thrown me a life preserver. It was serendipitous.

The Kindness Challenge has been proven to improve your relationships by doing just these three things every day for a month.

POSITIVITY: Say nothing negative about your person – either to them or about them to someone else.
PRAISE: Every day, find one positive thing that you can truly praise or affirm about your person and tell them, and tell someone else.
KINDNESS: Each day during the challenge, do a small act of kindness or generosity for them.

Isn’t that so easy? My husband and I are both pledging to work on our relationships with our sons.

I know that by choosing our children as our focus, the challenge will be trying to navigate the fine line between discipline and kindness. Ashamedly, I must admit that I lose my patience far too often and being kind to my most precious treasures escapes me in the heat of the moment.

When I should be soft, I snap.

When I need to give a hug, I offer criticism instead.

When they need me to listen to them, I split my focus because it doesn’t seem important to me, but I know that little Lego creation means the world to them.

sigh

I have a long way to go and loads of improving to do, and I’m so excited to begin becoming better. I’m starting my challenge on January 16th and I would be so honored if you would join me! My challenge will end on Valentine’s day – which is a special day in our home, marking the day the boys dedicated their lives to Christ. I’ll be blogging about how my 30 Day Kindness Challenge is going.

Do you have a relationship you are desperately wanting to improve? You can choose anyone you wish. It can be your spouse, a parent or in-law, a co-worker, or even a friend.

If you sign up to participate, you will get one email each day with ideas on how to be kind that day. Won’t you join us? I would love to hear from all of you on your progress! Sign up here – you can pick the date you want to start. Let’s make 2017 a year of kindness!

This program is based on the book The Kindness Challenge: Thirty Days to Improve Any Relationship. If you would like your own copy, click here: