I Am a Good Mum

I’ll be honest: it regularly pops into my head that I am a crap mum. I think part of it is tiredness, part of it is low self-esteem, and part of it is just being a mother; it comes with the territory to think we aren’t doing a good job sometimes.

So I wanted to write down some things that make me a good mum; to remember that I am always good at the most important things, the things that keep my daughter safe, happy and help her be a good person.

1. I love my daughter with my whole heart. I couldn’t love her anymore and she knows it.
2. I tell her I love her every day. Numerous times.
3. She has a home-cooked dinner almost every day and I care about what she eats; making sure she doesn’t eat too much rubbish too often. I want her to be healthy and to want to be healthy as she grows up. I try to feed her a good amount of fruit and vegetables, even if she won’t eat them.
4. She is happy. She feels loved and cared for and that is because of us.
5. She is polite; she nearly always says please and thank you and puts her hand over her mouth when she coughs. I am proud that at three years old she does these things. She does them because we have taught her to.
6. She is caring. If another child is upset she gets very concerned and wants to look after them and make them better. Some of that is probably just her nature but perhaps she also gets some of that caringness from me.
7. I am interested. When she wants to tell me all about her day and the words spill from her mouth in one big jumble, I stop and listen.
8. I will always protect her no matter what.
9. I have helped her learn to do many new things. I encourage her and I praise her when she has done something well or learnt to do something new, and tell her how proud of herself she should be.
10. I spend time with her. We read together, play together and mess about together. We don’t do it as much as I’d like, but we still do it.

Of course I am not a perfect mother. I don’t think many of us are or that we could even agree on what a definition of that would be. Sometimes I mess up, let her watch too much TV, eat pizza twice in one week, shout at her, swear in front of her, don’t dress her in enough layers before we go out and let her wear those shoes that are slightly too small for slightly too long. The list could go on.

But where it counts, where it truly matters; I am a good mum. My daughter is happy, healthy, well-cared for, well-loved, polite and friendly. All of the little things that I do wrong, she doesn’t even notice most of the time. And the little things that I do automatically, like love and care for her; well, they are the bigs things to her.

I am a good mum.

And so are you.

Linking up with ‘Friday Free For All’.