to your mother

THOUGHTS ABOUT BEING A MOTHER AND LOVING A MOTHER...FROM A MOTHER OF TWO.







Friday, May 20, 2011

I Know

At times I will complement Mom; upon her hair, her outfit, her laughter, her crazy socks.  Her standard reply (said quickly and with confidence) is "I know", such as:

PA:    Mom, love your outfit, the shades of purple really are becoming to you.
Mom: I know.
PA:    Mom, that's just rude.  You should say "Thank you" when someone compliments you.

Then we both bubble over with laughter...and she never says "thank you".

Recently I have been reflecting upon my self-esteem.  Let's just say that what I portray to the world (confidence, beauty, self-love) is not how I feel inside.  When I receive compliments from others, I usually smile, say thank you, then promptly dispose of the compliment because those good thoughts don't apply to a cretin such as myself (in my head, remember?  Not a safe place to be, you don't want to vacation there is all I'm sayin').  Now I am working on BELIEVING those good thoughts.  I AM beautiful.  I AM intelligent.  I AM talented.  I DO love myself.  This is hard work, brain surgery for someone who has thought this way for eons, but I AM a strong woman and I AM able to change.  I am working on stopping the negative thoughts in my head before they run rampant and replacing those negs with positives.

In the midst of all this self-work, I started thinking about Mom's replies to my compliments.  Maybe I need to learn from her.  Hear the compliment and think "I know", such as:

Mike: There's my beautiful wife!
PA:     (I know) Thank you, if feels good to be beautiful.
Mike: Now give this Daddy a kiss.

You get the picture, I'll stop there. 

I must BELIEVE, I must LISTEN, I must ACKNOWLEDGE, I must KNOW.

Thanks Mom.

1 comment:

  1. I'm right there with ya! Negative thoughts lead to nothing but bad thoughts. You are beautiful, intelligent and talented!!! Just look at your kiddos, they should tell you just how AWESOME you are!! Keep up the positive thinking and remember to keep smiling :)

    ReplyDelete