The short answer is, yes. You are turning into your mother.
Today’s topic was inspired by the Progressive Insurance commercials about turning into your parents.
(I’m not linking them because I’ll only lose you to the YouTube rabbit hole! This is not an ad but look them up later. They are really funny!)
So, what’s your take? Is it such a bad thing to turn into your mother?
Not for me.
My mom rocks! If you know Linda, you’re nodding your head in agreement concurring that, yep, she rocks!
The older I get, the more I appreciate her… and see myself in her – or perhaps her in me? Nevertheless, it’s happening and there’s no stopping it!
Here’s how we’re similar:
Mom and I are both solar powered and love daily naps. We also love our alone time. And laughing.
As I write this, we are both home alone while our SOs are out of town.
Mom and I talked about getting together while the guys were away but we both knew full well that we were going to sit home and bask in our alone-ness.
Though, we did have multiple phone conversations – about college football, colonoscopies, and other pressing topics that the two of us could chat about for hours, so there’s that.
We’re also different, and that’s good too.
In becoming our parents, we have the opportunity to take the best of them and improve upon the rest.
Our children will someday have that same opportunity.
It’s why it’s important to stop and think about WHY we do things.
If the answer is, ‘because that’s how my mom did it’, my next question is, how’s that working for you?
Who will your kids turn into?
There are so many advances – in products, services, technology, etc – that can help us be more efficient, more effective and more productive.
Our calendars and to-do lists look much different than our mother’s once did.
We have to define our own way of managing them because ‘mom’s way’ might just be contributing to draining your time and energy.
Make use of tools and systems that help you work smarter, not harder.
Then teach your kids to do the same. They will thank you some day. Though it might not be until they start turning into you.
Here is what the experts have to say…
Take it from science and this article from Amanda Mushro at tlc.com, Women Start Turning into Their Mothers at 33 Years Old, Study Says.
Maybe this is when we find ourselves in situations with our own kids that made our parents seem a bit nutty, and we are finally able to realize: Oh, that’s why my mom was always so tired and often seemed frustrated with us.
Amanda Mushro, tlc.com
Additionally, here’s a bonus article that had me giggling: These 21 Women Shared How They Could Tell They’d Turned Into Their Moms, And I Am Quivering.
And last but never least, of course, there’s a podcast for that…
This week’s featured episode, How We Are and Aren’t Turning Into Our Parents comes from The Girl Next Door Podcast.
It explores how we can use our awareness of our transformation into our parents to impact our own children (and maybe even our parents too).
👩🏽💻 The Grace Lab
Join us on Fridays at 2pm ET in The Grace Lab on Zoom for our weekly community call.
It’s like a book club except instead of reading an entire book, you just have to listen to a single podcast episode.
Use it as an excuse to pop in your headphones and listen while you go for a walk or tackle something you’ve been avoiding (like folding laundry… just me?).
Listen to the episode on tap for the week found here, then join us on Zoom! The episode is also the first one on the playlist below…
🎧 The Podcast Playlist for Busy Moms
Here are the latest episodes added to the September playlist:
Remember to 💚 it to save it to your Spotify library so you can chip away at it while you sip your coffee, drive, walk, exercise, organize, fold laundry, cook, clean, etc.!
🐝 BIZI: An Online Community for Busy Moms
Our online community is getting an upgrade and we need your help!
We’re making improvements to bring you a community experience that is meaningful and inviting.
In your opinion…
What are the attributes of a great community? What resources are/would be helpful? Events? Mixers? Accountability? Accessibility? What holds you back from participating? What other suggestions do you have?
We greatly value your feedback on this! Email us at hello@graceintherace with any thoughts you have to help us create a valuable community experience for YOU!
❤️ Thank you for being here!
We truly appreciate you! If you’re enjoying Grace in the Race (the newsletter, BIZI – the online community, the weekly Zoom calls, and/or the podcast playlist), please consider sending us a note to let us know what you like… or show your love with a cup of coffee:
At Grace in the Race, our mission is to help moms do what they can with the time, energy and resources they have; all while believing that’s enough.
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