This post was sponsored in kind by Motherhood Center in Houston, TX.
Earlier this week, my son’s teacher scheduled a parent teacher conference. I’m at the school quite often volunteering and helping out, but as a parent, it’s just as nerve-racking for me to go and talk with his teacher as it is for my son. In the past, these meetings have always gone well. They say he’s on target for all of his academics but that he’s a little goofy in the classroom sometimes. We work out a plan to help him get back on track and then we move on.
Background: My son is the youngest in his class – by far. Actually, by the state’s standards, he should be in a lower grade because of his age. But because he’s always been ahead academically, he’s been advanced to a higher grade.
But this meeting went a little differently. The teacher acknowledged his academic level and said he was near the top of the class. Great! Beaming mom moment. And then the “but” came in… apparently, after he finishes his work in warp speed, he’s left to his own devices and his imagination of what to do next. At this point, he starts building forts out of his markers, erasers, and paperclips. Or he starts disrupting others who are still working.
At this point, I have no idea what to do. I’m frustrated. I’m tired. And I see this precious little boy acting out and I don’t know what to do to fix it. I spent the rest of the evening trying to hide the tears and watching the clock until bedtime. My kids are so important to me and I just feel so lost.
As timing would have it, I had a massage scheduled at the Motherhood Center. To say I didn’t feel worthy of relaxation was an understatement. I was not exactly feeling like I deserved to unwind – after all, I was failing my son. I wasn’t being the mom he needed. I wasn’t teaching him what I needed to. I wasn’t good enough.
Why do we do that to ourselves as moms? Why do we take on our children’s issues as our own? Oye. But back to my massage…
So I walked into the Motherhood Center in the River Oaks area of Houston, TX and met with Gabriela. Gabriela is the founder and CEO of the organization and couldn’t be more sweet. Gabriela was a pediatric nurse in the Czech Republic and came to the United States to work as an Au Pair for a family with a premature baby. After finding the Houston area was lacking certain resources for parents and expectant mothers, she founded the Motherhood Center in 2000.
She gave me a tour of the facility there and is was awesome! Why didn’t I know about this place when I was pregnant with my kiddos? The Motherhood Center has a ton of activities and classes for every stage – pregnancy, post natal, and toddler age. They have yoga classes, massage (including induction massage -how many moms could use that to help them induce labor!), breast feeding classes, babysitting, grandparent classes, and even a nanny school where they teach students how to care for children. It was such a calming space and everyone there had a big smile on their face. It was so warm and welcoming!
Gabriela then introduced me to Jane, my master massage therapist. Jane has worked at the Motherhood Center for 9 years and has magic hands. Seriously. She asked me the amount of pressure I like and what areas of my body were troubling me. For me, my shoulders are always where my anxiety and stress is stored. So she work and worked at massaging those tense shoulders away.
But as I left the building, I realized how much I needed that last hour to get my mind right. I spent that entire hour just focusing on my breathing, feeling my muscles un-knot themselves and slow my heart rate. I was a nervous wreck before that, and while I didn’t leave Motherhood Center with the answers to all of my parenting problems, I did have less tense shoulders than I went in with.
It’s so important as mothers for us to be able to take time for ourselves – and in whatever manner that means for you! If that means having a margarita at mom’s night out with some other mamas, do it! If that means you take a bubble bath and lock everyone out of your bathroom, do it! Do whatever it is that you can do to relax. We work so hard to be the best moms we can be, so make sure to give yourself a little grace when those rotten days arise.
