Theta Mom, personal blogging hero and friend posed the question to her readers, “What makes you proud to be a Theta Mom?” I thought about it, and thought about it, and then I thought some more. This is what I discovered:
I have a very real and personal fear of failure. I would have never embarked on motherhood if I thought there was a chance I might not be good at it. When I was childless, I’d hear mothers lament and I’ll admit, I thought I was better. I thought I had all the answers. I thought I was smart enough to find the answers I didn’t have, and when the time came, I thought I could do it better. Now that I sound like a totally awesome person to know I’ll tell you this, motherhood has made me feel less than optimistic about my maternal abilities only about a million times, give or take a few.
Becoming a mother has taught me under no uncertain terms how much I don’t know. I pretty much go through motherhood pretending to know a few things and the few things I really do know have been learned the hard way. If I knew for a moment how challenging I’d find motherhood on a personal level, I would have probably been too scared to try my hand at it.
For all the things I don’t know, I know this much is true:
I am thankful I had no real idea about what motherhood entailed so that my fear couldn’t stop me.
I am grateful for every truth and lesson learned the hard way.
I am blessed to be given enough humility and courage by my children to admit that I’m learning.
First time mom
To me, being a Theta Mom is largely about honesty and support of our fellow mothers. How lucky we are to mother in a time where support is only a click away. It gives me comfort to read of a fellow mom’s insecurity only to be followed by a moment of pride. It gives me comfort to read how a fellow mom is learning. Most of all, it gives me comfort to know I’m not alone. We are a sisterhood of women all trying our best every bloody day. We are the ones raising the future husbands, wives, moms and dads. We are the ones who feel tremendous pressure to do it right because it matters; we are the ones.
I want to thank Heather from Theta Mom for encouraging personal honesty in answering her question. I hope you’ve learned a little something from me because I’ve learned a countless lessons from you, my fellow moms. Thank you for showing me I’m not alone, thank you for voicing your truths every day and thank you for encouraging me to speak mine. I am proud to be a Theta Mom!
MOMMYFRIEND 
Mary, you always have hilarious comments. You ought to start a blog, the mom blog community is amazing and all about supporting each other. Give it a try, you’ll have a reader in me!
So I guess I could join you on being a theta mom, I mean I would love to really start a blog, and you don’t know how many times I’ve seen these lame reality shows and thought “my life is SO much more interesting” haha, love your posts!
Your words here resonate with me. I’m sitting here nodding my head in agreement with everything you’ve written.
I’m constantly second guessing myself…pretending like I know what I’m doing!
I figure if my kids go to bed with smiles on their faces, feeling loved and happy, than I’ve succeeded at for that day!!
Visiting from Theta Mom’s blog! Thanks for sharing this!
Great post. Yes, fear is part of it. But I am trying to do this thing that makes me do one thing outside of my comfort zone every day. Beautiful site.
Sincerely yours,
Sarah Baron
Anonymous8
A great honest post.. thanks so much for sharing. I am going through the list now and am so happy to read these type of posts! 🙂
Wonderfully honest post.
I’m having fun meeting all the other Thetamoms!
“I am thankful I had no real idea about what motherhood entailed so that my fear couldn’t stop me.”
That is so true. I too have a fear of failure, and tend not to do things I’m not pretty sure I’ll be good at. If I had any clue what kind of miserable failure I’d be every day as a mom, there’s no way I’d have done it. But, doing this hard thing has made me a much better, more humble person. (Most of the time.)
Thanks for this post!
Wow I completely agree with you! I really identify with so much of what you said. I feel like it’s so easy when you’re outside looking in to think that you’ll be able to figure out the right answer when it’s your kid. But it’s definitely harder than we think at times, but at the same time for me – it’s been even more wonderful than I thought. I mean, I knew I would love being a mom, but I really really cannot imagine my life without my daughter now. It’s beyond explanation really.
But I also had a really hard time at the very beginning & if someone had told me about those first 6 weeks or so in the way I remember them, I don’t know if I ever would have had the courage to get pregnant! But I’m so happy I did!
Wonderful post! I second guess my parenting choices almost as soon as I make them — good to know I’m so not the only one. So glad to have come by here, too.
I love how you said, “I am thankful I had no real idea about what motherhood entailed so that my fear couldn’t stop me.” This is so true. I was the first in my family and out of my friends to have a baby. I had not idea how to be a “mom” but it is something that you just learn to do and fall right into. Great blog 🙂
What an awesome post! I loved when you said, “I am thankful I had no real idea about what motherhood entailed so that my fear couldn’t stop me.” <—-I never thought of it that way, it’s true – perhaps I would have had the smae “fear” going into it knowing the real deal.
Loved the pictures and you know I adore you.
xo
What a beautiful piece and I can relate because I too embarked on this ride of mommyhood almost blindly (both sides of the families were far from us so no help from them LOL) – well I did got a copy of What To Expect book but there surely has been plenty of learning by doing moments like you said above. Kudos to you for being Theta Mom!
Thanks so much for sharing!
it is so crazy how much we, as mother’s, do not know. My oldest is ten and I’m still learning every day!
I love this post. My ‘baby’ is now 25 but I recall the whole realm of emotions you’ve expressed. Motherhood is humbling but as I look back I can still see my mistakes but I can see that they’re smaller than I thought at the time. It’s taken me this much perspective to realize how well my kids turned out. And,even now I still have my share of parenting mistakes..
Thank you for giving me the chance to reflect on this. Very cool.