#Iamthiskindofmom

I have recently started following Simply on Purpose on Instagram and Facebook and it has been encouraging to hear her approach to parenting and finding a way to raise your kids with purpose. Her current push is on being the kind of mom that God created you to be and finding your strengths and embracing them (and not beating yourself up about the things that you may not enjoy). It has made me take a step back and think about the kind of mom that I am. It is so easy to see the gifts of those around you and to compare and feel like you are not "good enough." It is so much harder to see those things in ourselves.

If I had to list my strengths, is it a list that I am proud to admit and embrace? Is it OK to let go of some of the things that I wish were different? My one mom label that I feel like is a strength would be that I am a "reading mom." I love to read to my kids, encourage them and provide ample opportunity to get new paper books from the library and audio books from the online lending library. It is the one thing that I feel like I have been successful at parenting- teaching them to read fluently and enjoy it! :)

One of my weaknesses would be that I don't enjoy unstructured play and especially hate pretend play. I do not enjoy pretending to be a horse or a Barbie and make up stories. I know that as a kid, I was great at playing dolls, but now I cannot handle more than five minutes of pretend play without wanting to poke my eyes out!

I wish that there were more things that I could confidently add to my strengths list- cooking mom, fun playground mom, birthday party mom, healthy/organic mom, trendy mom, sewing mom, patient/calm mom, the list goes on and on. My goal for the next few weeks is to start letting go of the guilt that I have for the things that I am not and figure out more of the things that I do well and enjoy those things with my kids!