Making Progress

Today after Relief Society one of the presidency members stopped to talk to me for a second.  She had watched me chase Madelyn for the better part of the hour as the efforts of me and my mom to corral her in a single row were thwarted after ten minutes :)  In the short time we have been here I have learned a little about this woman who seems so distinguished and wise and I have come to respect her, so her coment really meant a lot to me.  She said, "Oh honey, don't worry about chasing her so much!  We will just close the door and the women will keep her busy! Let her go!"

In my last ward I could let my children go.  When Ammon was this age the women loved to be visited by him!  They welcomed him and hugged him and let him play with their things.  I knew who wanted a visit from him and who didn't (for the most part :) and it was wonderful.  Not that I let him run the whole time, but if he wanted to get off of my lap for a few minutes to explore, the women welcomed him. And then when Madelyn came they all wanted to help and hold and nurture.  That is the beautiful thing about women in the Relief Society :)

And I'm sure the ladies in this ward are just as wonderful, except a good majority of them are older and haven't had children running through their houses on a daily basis for a while and I have learned that if people are not used to the noise and mess, it isn't always welcomed.  And I don't want to be unwelcomed, so I chase Madelyn.  Then John comes in for Sunday school and he chases her :)

Tonight I was thinking about this sweet sister and her encouragement and I think that maybe that is what we all need - a little more encouragement and assurance that we are not failing miserably :) Sometimes I pay way to much attention to off handed comments or suggestions as to how I might improve my parenting skills. But you know they are all so different.  Some want me to control every move my children make and some think I need to lighten up :) And I'm never going to make them all happy and well, its exhausting :) And I had a sort of epiphany. 

What does Heavenly Father think of my parenting? 

And that is all that matters, right? Because so many people have so many opinions and many think they can do it better, or are doing it better and while I am the first to admit, both me and my children need some lessons and there are many improvements to be made, today I watched them maul their father and I realized something... my children are happy.  And that's a good start.

So I have set some goals concerning things we need to improve upon and we have put them in our family's goal binder and instead of expecting myself to be the perfect parent right now we are just going to pick one or two things and work on that for the Summer. And then maybe we'll pick something else to work on :)  And maybe by the time they are ready to leave the house I will have taught them a thing or two :)