Last month my husband and I took a solo vacation for our anniversary and the grandparents stayed at our house with the girls while we were gone.
Upon our return, my mother-in-law shared with me a quote my 7-year-old daughter busted out I had to share.
The impetus for the quote came one night when we called from Mexico and she happened to be eating dessert. She asked if we could call back? That in itself was funny, because, God forbid we interrupt the sacred eating of dessert.
I guess a few other things happened during the course of the stay, and my mother-in-law pointed out how you have to also think about others because it isn’t all about “me, me, me.” The word “selfish” was used in this conversation and she looked at my mother-in-law and said,
Of course at first when I heard that I laughed so hard tears came down my face. The brutal honesty killed me. At the same time, I was sort of mortified, because, my GOSH, that sounds awful!
Then, the more I thought of it, the more I LOVED it, because isn’t that an AWESOME quote?
But please don’t get me wrong, because I am not encouraging self-indulgent or selfish behavior in my kids, but what I loved is the fact that she was honestly viewing it as “taking care of herself” in her 7-year-old mind.
Wouldn’t it be great if us moms looked at it this way sometimes? At some point as we get older, we lose this perspective of just how important it is to take “really good care of ourselves.”
I believe ALL moms could benefit from taking the time to take really good care of yourself, and realize, it is NOT selfish.
So the next time you want to say “no” to an obligation or take an hour to get your nails done, or basically do SOMETHING you want to do, think, “I’m not selfish. I just like to take really good care of myself.”
Photo credit: www.kristineldridge.com
I have no problem taking very good care of myself. Thank you, Emma, for making it sound so totally logical and necessary.
That’s what I loved the most – it was just so matter of fact!