Calling all Moms and Women

First let me start by saying that I am not paid to endorse or promote i-mom, they do not even know who I am.  I have simply found that they are a great resource and I would like to share.

Have you heard of iMOM?  I first heard of i-mom last year at the MOPS Convention.  When I got home, I decided to check them out and I was amazed!  There are all sorts of resources on their website.  They have parenting ideas (from creative forms of discipline to chore charts - with lots of printables), they have marriage  ideas (from resolving conflict with your spouse to romantic date night ideas), they have organizational hints and tips, cooking & recipe ideas, etc.  It is called iMOM and when you are looking for ideas for your children, they have ideas for children of all ages (pre-school to teens), but with all the organization and recipes ideas, etc. it's not just for moms.

One of my favorite parts of iMOM is the Espresso Minute.  It is a short, get your day started e-mail (you can have it delivered to your inbox or you can check it out on-line).  Today's Espresso Minute was titled Top 10 Habits Your Family Needs to Break.  It really made me think.

iMOM is Christian based so the values that you see on the website are good and wholesome.  It even tells you about children's movies so you can decide before you go to the theater (no surprises).  For example:  it has a rating system on how much sex, language, violence, drugs, nudity, other might be in the movie.  If it is rated with a 1 for language, it will then have a note below giving a little more detail (ex:  childish name calling such as stupid; Holy Crap), so you know what words it uses (Holy Crap) or how words are used (name calling).  It will give you a brief synopsis of the movie and the message that it is trying to convey.  They are not trying to push their values on you, they just tell you how it is so you can make an educated decision based on your values.

If you haven't checked out iMOM before, check it out and tell me your favorite part of their website.  (If you have checked out iMOM before still let me know your favorite part.)

Are you a member of the GMC?

Mothering

Are you a member of the GMC (Guilty Moms Club)?  Just about every mother I know is.  For some reason guilt comes with motherhood.  If your child has an ear infection, "What if I laid him down too soon after drinking his bottle and the fluid backed up in his ear canal?"  If your child falls down and scrapes his knee, "What if I had been watching him closer?"  We tend to blame ourselves (guilt) for things that we cannot control.

Another common emotion (for lack of better term) for mothers is failure.  If your child brings home a bad grade, "I didn't stress enough the importance of school and grades."  If your child gets caught in a lie, "I wasn't teaching him enough about honesty."  When our children fail, we feel that we fail.  Failure is a part of growing up, learning, etc.  Our children need to fail sometimes (they will learn from that quicker than the lessons that we teach them).  Our children's failures do NOT reflect upon us.

At our MOPS Steering Team Retreat a few weeks ago, our very wise coordinator said (and I am paraphrasing), "God is The Perfect Parent and look at how often His children fail."  Tamara, thanks so much for your words of wisdom.  That brings me comfort.

Our children are not puppets.  We cannot (and should not) control everything our children do.  We (and I am including myself in this) should relax a little and enjoy our children more (even their mistakes - it's a process).