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Mom
Management™
by Tracy Lyn
Moland, Author of Mom Management™, Managing Mom Before Everybody
Else
 Mom
Management™ holds a number of meanings, with Managing
Mom Before Everybody Else™ being most important. I have
always felt that being a Mom is a lot like being a manager.
The skills we use to run our homes are very similar to skills
used to run a business.
Regardless
of our individual circumstances, we share a common bond -
that of being a Mother. Being a Mom is an incredible experience
but it is also very consuming. We have all experienced an
incredible change from our pre-mother lives. Most of these
changes are very positive but one that we all have trouble
dealing with is a loss of our sense of self. At some point,
we realize that we have let being a Mom become our entire
identity. When my children were two and four years old, I
realized that Tracy Lyn was missing. In tears, I realized
I had lost my sense of self. In looking for myself, I decided
to try doing a triathlon, thus setting one goal. Wow! The
focus of that one goal, one thing just for me, re-established
my sense of self. That initial goal led to five more triathlons,
becoming an entrepreneur, a professional speaker, and now
an author. During the long process of finding my true self
again, I also became a better Mother.
As
I realized, being a Mom is not who we are, but rather one
of the many other roles that we fill in our lives. The term
Mom Management™ was created as a reminder that the Me in Mommeee
still exists, and needs to be nurtured. Flying provides us
with the perfect analogy. At the beginning of each flight,
we are told that, “If flying with children, make sure to secure
your own oxygen mask first and then secure theirs.” As a Mom,
we need to take care of ourselves first so that we can better
meet the needs of our families. Rather than put ourselves
second we need to secure our oxygen masks first.
When
we truly care for ourselves, it becomes possible to care far
more profoundly about other people. The more alert and sensitive
we are to our own needs, the more loving and generous we can
be toward others. ~ Eda LeShan
 Knowing
we need to care for ourselves and doing it are very different
things. As Moms, we feel that we are being selfish if we take
the extra time to pay better attention to our own needs. However,
it is not selfishness but an absolute necessity for Moms to
be cared for. By taking time to explore their dreams and determining
their priorities, Moms have the chance to learn to manage
themselves and become their own friend!
Friendship
with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot
be a friend with anyone else in the world. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
“Excerpted
from Mom Management, Managing Mom Before Everybody Else ©
2003 Tracy
Lyn Moland. Used with permission of The Gift of Time™.
All rights reserved.
For
more articles on Mom's Health, refer to the Sept/Oct
issue of the ParentGuide.
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