Re-experiencing failure in advance can sound like this in a mom’s head:
- “I don’t want to invite anyone over to my house because they will think that I’m a slob.
- “I don’t want to travel with my kids because they will drive me crazy the whole time and it won’t be worth my effort.”
- “I don’t want to get to know anyone at my church because they will just ask me to do things that I don’t have time to do.”
- “I don’t want to try and cook something healthy because my family will hate it and then I will have wasted my time.”
What if we didn’t waste time “re-experiencing failure in advance” like we do during a mom anxiety episode?
What would each of these scenarios look like now?
You invited people over and you had a great time.
Whoa. Call the papers. That’s a tragedy worth a front page headline.
You took a trip and although it wasn’t picture perfect all the time, but you made some memories with your family that would have never happened otherwise.
And we know making memories with kids is so harmful, right?
You introduced yourself to someone new at church and found out you have a lot in common. In fact, you are planning to have lunch together soon.
Lunch? Everyone eats lunch. Why not with someone that can enrich you with life-giving friendship.
You cooked ginger-coated tofu with a sauce from another country that you can’t even pronounce.
Only one person out of your family had one bite and that person wasn’t even you.
Oh well. Really — oh well.
Pitch that recipe and move on to another one that won’t clog your family’s arteries and spike their blood sugar. You used a coupon for that tofu anyway…and got it on sale.
Unless we try, we don’t learn. We don’t grow. We teach this to our kids on a daily basis but for moms it can feel stifling.
Anxiety is such a waste of a mom’s precious time.
Time that we could be doing things that really make our families better and making us happier in the process. If mama ain’t happy….
you know the rest.
