Guilt Free Mom Tip #9- Know When you Just “Couldn’t.”
I’m driving my preschooler to the doctor at 9am yesterday after a frightening night of high fevers that brought on hallucinations, vomiting, and odd behavior. We had the doctor on the phone at 3am, trying to bring these scary fevers down. It had been 15 hours of these terrifying symptoms when I am explaining to her on the way to that doctor’s office that ,”Mommy and Daddy tried all night to help you feel better…” when she interrupted me immediately and sweetly and caringly said, “but you just couldn’t.”
BINGO. We, as Moms, will do ANYTHING to help our children feel better, do better or just to plainly help them with whatever they need and desire! However, there are times when we have to realize we just can’t…or “couldn’t.” So much is expected of us, as the maternal head of the household (fair or not) and at times, I believe this promotes the false notion that we CAN do it all.
However, thankfully, we have our limitations, just like all other human beings. There are things we simply can not do. My husband can lift our kids up to touch the ceiling and they love playing this game. I can not do that….and I like that they can enjoy that special activity with their Daddy. I couldn’t diagnose nor heal the pneumonia that struck my daughter this week.
Instead of beating ourselves up and focusing on what we ‘can not’ do…… Let’s embrace those things and be thankful for those who can help us. We are only human and as Moms, it is not possible for us to be the answer to EVERYTHING our children will need!
Let’s be gracious and not guilt ridden that we have people in our lives who CAN when we “COULDN’T!”
So true! A similar incident happened with our, at the time,5 year old. He had the flu and needed to be hospitalized. We felt guity that we couldn’t heal him, we felt guilty that we waited as long as we did to take him to the hospital, we felt guilty that he had to celebrate his 5th birthday on the ped unit. It’s hard to know when we truly can and when we truly can’t and so we must pray for discernment!