Articles About Being a Good Mother from the Searses
In my most recent Parenting Newsletter from AskDrSears.com there are three great links appropriate for celebrating Mother’s Day and the incredible job of mothering and allowing children to grow into their best self. Here are two links on enabling Mother to be her best self and text from Dr. Bill and Martha’s new book, 25 Things Every New Mother Should Know.
In response to a national campaign instructing parents never to keep an infant in their bed, the doctors continues to educate parents on safe co-sleeping practices.
For mothers to be at their best personally and as a parent we need to avoid burnout that can come with giving so much.
25 Things Every Mother Should Know
Written by Martha and Bill Sears
A few paragraphs from the chapter “The Perfect Mother?”
It’s not that you should never clean; some order is necessary for your sanity. Just keep the ideal of the perfect house in its place. You may need to encourage your husband to lower his standards, take on a bigger share of the work, or both. You should both remember that all the gorgeous homes you see in magazines and all the perfectly kept yards you drive past on the way to the grocery store probably don’t belong to people who are trying to juggle housekeeping and caring for a new baby. Try to take the long perspective. Someday your children will grow up and move out and you can have a perfect house – if you still want one. No one on her deathbed ever wished she had spent more time cleaning, and no one on her deathbed ever regretted spending too much time with her children.
If your perfectionist tendencies are surfacing now that you’ve become a mother, relax and ease up on yourself. Chances are, you’re doing the best that you can do, given the circumstances of the moment and the resources available to you. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re not good enough. If you are enjoying your baby and feeling that you really know and understand her, you’ve definitely got the hang of motherhood. Savor each moment of your baby’s life for what it is, instead of thinking of something more that could be done. If you stay tuned in to your baby most of the time, you’ll be the mother that your baby needs – a far better thing to aspire to than some distorted vision of perfection.
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