Taking Care of Me: Part Deux

Some readers emailed me privately to thank me for my last blog post “Taking Care of Me!” I love feedback. It makes me happy. That was until I read on and found out that these same readers were beating themselves up for not doing a better job to encourage their children to care for their own needs.

I am weeping inside at this. If I am doing my (self-appointed) job helping you to care for yourself at a deep soul level, I will never intentionally give you a reason to beat yourself up!

So I want to take this opportunity to address the feedback here in the event any other readers may be feeling the same way. In “Taking Care of Me,” I cited some fictitious examples of how an unsuspecting parent might discourage a child from taking care of her needs.

At an early age children can express themselves and care for their own needs in a completely self-centered and socially inappropriate way (this is normal!) They grab for items because they want them, they steal if you let them and bring physical harm to another if it has the chance of yielding a big haul like, let’s say, a particularly interesting piece of fuzz on the floor (ok, well maybe that’s just my child but – oh, well).

As moms it is equally important that we help our children understand how to take care of themselves AND respect other people. This is not the same as teaching children to put someone else’s needs before their own. So for those of you who are teaching this balance I commend you. Please do the same for yourself.

In the interest of self-care, of honoring the battle cry “I am taking care of me!,” please focus on what you are doing right! You will see there is so much there to choose from if you shift your focus from “What am I doing wrong?” to “What am I doing right?”

So c’mon, spill it here or spill it to someone you know – tell us all about what you are doing right!