5 Easy Ways to be a Great Mom

If you’re anything like me, you probably keep yourself awake every single night worrying that you’re failing as a parent, and frantically trying to come up with easy ways to be a great mom.

I know it sounds silly, but who are we kidding? We ALL do this. We fall into the trap when we mindlessly scroll other people’s social media highlights, and we begin to feel like we are lacking in comparison. Moms. Stop doing that. Being a parent isn’t easy, but being a great mom isn’t as hard as you might think. So give yourself a little credit and dive into these things you’re probably already doing and not giving yourself enough credit for.

5 Easy Ways to be a Great Mom

Be a Great Mom When You Lead by Example

This can be through the simplest of examples or the most complex. Those little eyes look up to us and believe me when I tell you they see every single thing we do. The good and the bad. They learn from us; they hear the way we talk about ourselves and the way we speak about other people. Figure out your core values and them demonstrate them in every single thing you do every day. Show your kiddos the importance of loving yourself, in taking care of yourself and making your passions a priority. In being kind to others, and in always learning to be better than the person we were yesterday. Not better than our neighbor or that random mom we follow on Instagram, but butter than ourselves.

When You Listen

You don’t have to agree with your children, and you won’t always – but you need to be open to listening to them. To really hearing and trying to understand their point of view. It’s easy to get frustrated, and it’s easy to tune them out when they keep repeating the same story over and over and over again. But make an effort to truly listen to what your kids are trying to tell you. I think you’d be surprised at what you may learn, and the trust they’ll put in you when you make this a regular habit.

When You Apologize and Forgive

This one isn’t always easy, but it’s so essential. Apologize when you’ve done something wrong, even to your children. And forgive openly. They’ll see and hear the arguments you’ll have with your partner. They’ll see how upset it makes you when those moments happen. It’s part of life and we can’t avoid it. We will all face conflict at one point or another, even our kids. Showing them that’s it’s okay to mess up and make a mistake, and teaching them how to ask for forgiveness or to forgive others when we’ve been wronged will be huge and teach them lessons that will carry them far in life.

When You Make Time

This can be hard when you’re managing a household, getting awarded teacher of the year for your stellar virtual learning accomplishments, a job, and everything else that somehow ends up on your to-do list every single day. But even if you make time for a 5 minute story before bed, your kiddo will remember that. And they will feel like the most special child around because mom (or dad) told them their favorite bedtime story when they needed to hear it most.

Be a Great Mom When You Keep Showing Up

I honestly believe that parenthood is mostly trial and error. None of us really have any idea what we’re doing, but we all go to bed each night with a sigh of relief that we made it through another day. Keep showing up. Keep being the imperfect person that you are, and teach your children (through leading by example), that it’s okay to be imperfect. Accept your flaws, and keep showing up anyway. Even when you feel like you’re doing it wrong, even when you’re tired. You have to show up.