Family Friday: Getting back to the Good Stuff
It’s amazing just how busy we are with the minutia of day-to-day living. Trying to get more done in our business, attempting to keep a tidier house to impress the neighbors, and endlessly stocking up on groceries so if a hurricane blew the entire city over, we’d still have plenty of healthy snacks.
It’s amazing how little of it really matters.
What’s even more amazing is how a single event can help refocus and reprioritize everything in a matter of seconds.
That event happened to my dear friend Elizabeth Potts Weinstein when her lovely 5-year-old daughter Gracie was diagnosed with a 3 cm brain tumor in her cerebellum. Elizabeth rushed her to the hospital, not stopping to pack up her laptop, to call in business back up, or even update her twitter status.
In a matter of seconds, her priorities shifted to the bright-eyed girl who needed her mommy by her side as the doctors poked and prodded to determine the best course of treatment for her growing brain. She stayed focused on that little girl allowing her friends and family to rally around her for support.
I think of Elizabeth as I remember all the times I hustled my 5-year-old daughter into bed, reading the story perhaps a little too fast and closing the book with a sigh thinking to myself, “Please go to bed without a fuss because I have so much work to finish up.”
Thinking of Elizabeth and Gracie makes me cringe at the times that I allowed my daughter to watch WAY too much TV so I could finish a ‘very important’ proposal, take a networking call from a strategic partner or handle that one last task that got neglected during my official office hours.
My heart aches at the precious little moments I traded for the minutia because none of it really matters. None of it matters compared to having a healthy, happy 5-year-old who believes me when I tell her that fairies watch over her when she sleeps and kisses from mommy chase away bad dreams.
Getting back to the Good Stuff…
#1: Work will always be there – But your kids won’t always be small, or growing, or interested in hanging out with a boring old person like you for much longer. Cherish it.
#2: A messy house equals a life full of fun – If friends and neighbors don’t like it, find new ones. As long as it doesn’t land you on an episode of The Hoarders, it can wait (if your mother-in-law doesn’t like it, send her a copy of this post).
#3: Forget being Super Mom – Eating pancakes for dinner or ordering in once in a while won’t kill them or stunt their growth. Ditch the Super Mom routine – it’s not realistic anyway.
#4: Be present in the moment – Live and breathe and enjoy the moments that you have them with you. It won’t be long before the tears you shed at Kindergarten are the tears you shed for College.
Now GO! Enjoy a fantastic weekend with your family! Remember: it’s about creating success on YOUR terms!
About Carla Young
Carla Young, MOMeoMagazine.com Publisher
If there’s living proof that women can have it all – and then some – it’s Carla Young. Building her multiple businesses on a virtual work-at-home model, Carla is an inspiration to other mothers who want to start a lifestyle business.
During her early days as a mom entrepreneur, Carla made every single mistake in the book (and a few new ones for good measure). Realizing that “doing it all” was unhealthy and unsustainable, Carla started by getting organized to the extreme, developing support systems for both her work and family.
After other mothers started asking how they too could enjoy her lifestyle, Carla launched MOMeoMagazine.com to support moms at work, at home and at play (because every mommy deserves a little me-time)!
