Filed under: Moms, Dads, Emotions

Parents, especially mothers, spend a lot of time worrying, stressing out about their children's health, safety, and simple things like will they eat a good lunch at school that day. We also spend a lot of time being overly critical and finding ways to improve ourselves as parents or seeking reinforcement to make sure we're handling a situation with our children correctly.

One of the things I have always loved about blogging is the interaction between people online and the ability to read something that another person wrote and think, "Hey wow, someone else feels the same way I do!" Or just for the reassurance it can bring that we are not alone in our day-to-day struggles as parents.

I stopped writing completely for awhile after my custody trial, and it took me a long time to find the confidence to talk about parenting with other people again. I am slowly finding the courage to discuss openly what happened to me, but in doing so, I have discovered that sometimes I am starting to question myself. It is a bad thing to do, I know, but as I sat here today thinking about what I wanted to write, I felt deflated and unable to comment on any current events about parents in the news or a story about anything negative, including my own experiences.

Do you have that problem? Do you spend too much time worrying about what you're doing wrong as a parent? Or do you read about other parents and enviously wonder how they are able to juggle so much and handle so many things without going insane? Sometimes I get so annoyed with myself when I realize that I am making a list of regrets in my mind or that a news story is affecting me negatively.

That's the wrong way to think, I know. We are all excellent parents, aren't we? Just the fact that we worry means that we care enough to make sure our children are happy.

I no longer think it's mushy or cheesy to spend time propping ourselves up. We should all spend more time giving ourselves and each other positive reinforcement. Therefore, tell me a unique quality you possess as a parent. Share something about yourself that makes you a Gold Star Parent.

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