"Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect."
~Theodore Parker~
It upsets me when I see a dedicated mother discount herself as being somehow less important than her child, or children. It's evident that everything possible has been arranged for them- every opportunity, every advantage, every activity of interest- and the mother is carpool to them, and pocketbook. She seems to exist exclusively to serve her young. And she talks about herself that way. Not surprisingly, her children treat her with the same kind of contempt and disrespect that she treats herself.
This is not ok! Even as mothers of very important children, we matter! We have worth and beauty and talent galore in our own right. Fathers don't seem to tend in this direction as easily as mothers do and I commend them for that. But mothers! We are too quick to sell ourselves short, as if everything meaningful about us passes to our children when they are born and we no longer have anything to offer except to them. Let's step up and claim our beauty and our value and be willing to joyfully express to the world the unique and wonderful gift of ourselves!
I love my children but do not let them rob me of my dignity or my life.
