Joining the 'Bad Mom' Band Wagon

Despite what some of the more cynical blog reviewers would have you believe...I don't really think that 'bad parenting' is something that we, as a blogging group are proudly proclaiming as being a badge of honor amongst us. For some reason, when a MB chooses to share some of her more, let's say, humble moments of parenting with her fellow bloggers, she's allowing all of us to breathe that collective sigh of relief knowing that "I'm not the only one who has said/done that".

Called a 'bitch' and 'ugly' by my own mom, nice eh??? Thanks :-))

OUCH!

When I saw this Facebook status update posted by my own 13 year old daughter I was immediately transported back to my own adolescence and reminded of similar scenes that played out between my mother and I. I won't regale you with the details but needless to say, my mother and I did not enjoy a warm, close mother/daughter relationship while I was growing up and remain somewhat estranged to this very day.

I have always maintained that I would NOT become my mother, EVER. I swore that when I had a daughter I would remember how much I wanted a mother to count on and to support and comfort me as I faced the world. Up until this point, I think I've been pretty successful.

Alas, the teenage years have commenced, along with raging hormones, questionable peer relationships and her increasing ambivalence and anger around her father's move to another province where he has remarried and fathered another child.

My daughter needs me now more than ever and frankly, sometimes I fall down on the job. My mothering template is one that I have to choose to overcome and let's face it, I'm human, I get worn down, I get angry.

Did I say those things to my daughter? NO, but within the context of the situation, that's what she heard, and that's what matters.

Does that make me a bad mom? - Sometimes

Will I make mistakes? - Definitely

Do I love my children? -Desperately

Will it all work out in the end? I can only hope so.