Wisdom Wednesday: Kind mothers making kind people.

I'm here, I'm here!

I wasn't sure I'd get a post out today because YOU GUYS. I've been so darn tired lately. So, so tired. This whole "pregnant chasing a toddler thing" is just EXHAUSTING.

Alas. I'm here!

I read this article about raising kind daughters recently and it struck a chord.  

Can I tell you (very candidly) one the reasons I'm secretly so excited to have boys? 

Girls scare me. I'm not scared by the dolls, or the pink, and especially not the way-too-adorable-clothing options out there for little ladies. But girls can be MEAN. 

I am one, I lived it. 

When we were celebrating (enter unnamed baby boys name here) at dinner the night we found out the gender, I admitted to my family that I feel like there's a whole lot of pressure and responsibility that comes with raising a little girl. Girls are sensitive and easily hurt. Bullying seems to be more commonplace around little girls or teenage girls. Things tend to hit them harder, to devastate them easily, and honestly, all this scares the heck out of me.

Let me also step in here and say that I take the responsibility of raising little boys into good men very seriously, and I recognize that it is not going to be easy (teenage hormones, anyone?).

More than anything this article reminded of how much we as parents impact our kids lives; it's actually unbelievable how much so. They model behavior starting so young, and the scary thing is that it's not just what we teach and tell them that molds the person, it is how we act, how we treat others, and how we think when we don't always realize those little eyes are watching.

"If we treat their friends as competitors, our daughters will, too. If we love their friends like we love our own children, they're more likely to see them as sisters and part of the family...Over time our way of thinking becomes their way of thinking. If we want to raise kind daughters, we need to start by being kind mothers." -Kari Kampakis

I don't want to raise little people that can't be happy for the other person, or who are only consumed with their own success and happiness. Those people are never truly content, they are bitter, and they drive people away.
It's a sad and exhausting way to live.

So this read was a total gut-check: How do I think? How am I treating other people? How can I lead by a better example?

Thanks to all the ladies in my life who always celebrate my success, and I hope I've been that kind of friend to you in life. Here's to making more kind little people.