Today’s post is brought to you by the Number 3. And me.

I think it is easy for us moms to beat ourselves up.

To be critical of ourselves and to focus on all the places we think we have messed up.

To point out our flaws and our mistakes and our failures.

We do it with our children. We do it with our bodies. We do it with our houses and our wardrobes and our meals and, well, pretty much everything.

I’m not sure why we do this.

Why we find it so easy to accentuate the negative but not the positive.

If my kids do something which results in them feeling good about themselves, I encourage them to talk about it. To tell me how they are proud of themselves.

But how often do you do this yourself?

You will boast about your children to other people.

But how often do you say, “I’m so proud of myself!” to another adult?

Why does that make us feel uncomfortable?

Why, on the other hand, are we so comfortable beating ourselves up? Why does “I am such an asshole,” or “I feel so guilty” tend to roll off the tongue so easily?

Maybe there is a difference because we feel like when we share our mess ups, we are looking for people to tell us we don’t suck as bad as we think we do.

And that’s okay.

But share your accomplishments and now you feel like you are asking people to tell you how awesome you are.

Sure, there is a line. There is a line between celebrating and just flat out bragging.

But there is nothing wrong wanting to share your success.

Today I had a success.

And I want to share it.

Not because I am looking for compliments. Not because I want you to tell me how awesome I am.

Just because I am focusing on a part of me that I like today.

And I think we don’t do this enough.

I coach the 10 and under swimmers on the swim team, and I am Number 3 and 4’s swim coach.

I have spent the last two days at Age Groups in Connecticut, which is kind of a championship-type meet.

You need to swim a certain time to qualify and be eligible to swim.

Number 3 and a few other kids in my group qualified.

I was a little nervous going into the weekend.

Because this is my first season as the head coach of this group, and the responsibility for the success of the kids in it really lies with me.

I know I’m pretty outspoken and I talk a big game sometimes, so I was feeling a decent amount of pressure.

I feel a responsibility to help all the kids on the team perform to the best of their ability.

And I’m a good coach.

In fact, I will go as far as saying that I’m a really good coach.

I can make kids into better swimmers. I can teach them about responsibility and hard work and perseverance.

And it is personal.

You develop a personal connection with each kid you coach, and you don’t want to let them any of them down.

Seeing one of your swimmers come out of the pool with a huge smile on their face because they have just swum faster than they ever have in their life is extremely rewarding.

But it’s a little different when one of them is your own kid.

You never want to let anyone down.

But you really never want to let your own kids down.

And today, Number 3 kicked some ass.

And I mean he seriously kicked some ass.

And yeah, it feels good to have a kid who is good at what he does.

A kid who is a star on the team.

But that’s not why I feel good.

I came through for all the kids on the team.

But today, I definitely came through for Number 3.

I did not fail him and I did not let him down.

Today I watched Number 3 do something he’s never done before, and I helped him do it.

And that feels really good.

And I just wanted to share.

 

Thank you for making me Number 1!

PLEASE KEEP VOTING!!!!

Click on the banner below and you have registered your vote for me!