I was at the library a few days ago with my kids and as we were getting ready to leave, the skies opened up and it was pouring rain. I stopped with them by the door and knelt down to make sure their coats were zipped up and their hoods were covering their heads completely.
As I was checking them, tired from a long day and thinking about how I still had to get them home, make dinner, get their homework done, read a few books, give them baths and massages, another woman approached me.
“It’s so nice to see how good of a mother you are,” she said with a smile. “Your kids are very lucky.”
Wow, that was unexpected, I thought. “Thank you,” I said to her.
And it changed my whole day. I had more patience, I wasn’t frustrated, and I felt better about what I was doing with my kids.
But truthfully, I don’t get told that I am doing a good job very often. At a “real job,” you get periodic performance reviews and your boss will tell you that you’ve done a great job after a major project is completed but with your kids, you tend to do most of your work in isolation. Not too many people see how you care for your kids in your home.
So I’m proposing this new challenge – called the #GoodJobMom project. The premise is very, very simple.
Call a mom you know and tell her she’s doing a good job. Send her a text, an email, or write a short note in a card and mail it to her. Hit her up on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or however else you can. If you’re out and about and you see a mom doing something awesome with her kids, go up to her and tell her she’s great.
The point is to let people know that you see how hard they are working to be good parents. If you know a mom whose child has recently had surgery, let her know you admire her courage. If you know a mom who is working two jobs to provide her kids, tell her that you think she is incredible. (Shoot, get dads in on it, too!)
To spread the message far and wide, use the #GoodJobMom or #GoodJobDad hashtag on Twitter. If you participate, let me know either through the YML Facebook page, @TheYoungMommy on Twitter, through e-mail at tara@theyoungmommylife.com, or right here in the comments. I’ll be compiling our compliments and sharing them in a later blog post.
Let’s see how far we can get this to go!
I just dropped email on my younger daughter, the mother of two toddlers and newborn twins. She is absolutely AMAZING. Then I emailed a woman I know at church, the mother of an eight-year-old girl and two boys who are about five and two, I think. They are all wildly different and astoundingly imaginative, and she encourages them so beautifully while still teaching them to behave properly at church.
Thanks very much for this idea, Tara! It felt great to give some other moms some love!
I was reading this post just as a friend sent me an email to tell me I was a good mom! Gotta love that!! My mom’s birthday is today, so it’s appropriate that I posted about her in honor of the occasion.
Rabia! I complimented you because I was reminded to do so by this post—I didn’t know that you read Tara’s terrific blog! Please excuse me if I got the two younger kids’ ages wrong. Anyway, good job, mama!
Love this idea!! And it really does help. My mother-in-law stopped me the other day as we were leaving and told me I was doing a good job. Just about made me cry. It really is important to hear this!!
I love this idea! And I think this is such a needed challenge! I think it’s so important to encourage other moms because so often we do lose sight of what matters or of the great jobs that we are doing. Thank you for sharing this with me and for your very kind words on Twitter. I really appreciate it!!