I Am an Example

"After my children grow up
I'll become a person again." -Susan Polis Schutz: Do It Now Sister

My life is not mine until my kids are grown and out of the house. This is what some of us women actually believe. I used to believe this statement. I felt that I needed to give up myself to be the proper leader for my children by telling them what the need to do. What happened to leading by example and teaching along the way. We as adults should feel free to treat ourselves and spoil ourselves. I'm not talking about getting the babies child support check and buying an expensive outfit to hit the club scene telling people, "I'm doin' me" while your kids are sleep and the neighbor is keeping an eye on the house because they said that they will. That's foolish, in my opinion, to act so wreck less. Or even listening to hard core rap in front of children on your way to work and get mad when your children are doing what the song is talking about. This is another subject that I'm going to touch on so let me get back to my point. I'm talking about the parents that work hard, earn their money, include their children on vacations, teach their children when they made mistakes instead of punishing them without an explanation. I'm talking about taking care of home and when the parent wants to take the vacation without their kids, the children don't feel left out because they know that they are taken care of. I'm talking about chasing a passion on your extra time so you can quit that day to day job that has you worn out everyday. We all should try to figure out what makes us smile. When we finally lay our heads down at night after working our ass off all day with work, kids, homework, kids, housework, kids; we should be able to reflect on the day and smile, thank God in our nightly prayer and sleep peacefully. It's not perfect world but we can at least assure ourselves that we can be happy. If our children see how happy we are (and trust me, they know when we are miserable) and feel the openness to express themselves, they will know what to do as an adult to make themselves smile.