Over the weekend, my family and I were up to our eyebrows in Girl Scout cookies. We sold, delivered and even ate them. Holy cow, is this some involved work! We’ll be doing it again next weekend, too. Please support your local Girl Scouts if you can; they are really working hard. Our girls sold $400 worth of cookies at a single booth alone and they were absolutely pooped after selling for hours.
Anyway, while there, I chatted with another mom for a little while and the “busy-ness” of our lives crept into conversation. In just a few tense moments we began to one-up each other about how busy we are as working moms. I also found myself judging parenting choices and comments she made. Hold up! my brain screamed at me. You are better than this!
We are all on the same side, right? We just want what’s best for our families. Most of us are juggling bites that are larger than we can chew, after all. Shouldn’t we be supporting each other and offering empathy and a listening ear rather than such snippy behavior?
Even with my awareness and constant struggle to be better, I still find myself judging other people. I can gently remind myself to stop and it will work—sometimes permanently, sometimes not—but I can’t seem to stop the process from starting in the first place. Any mindful parents out there have tips on retraining your mind to be more patient and less judgmental?
For now, I’m going to take a deep breath as soon as these thoughts surface and remind myself that we are all doing the best we can with what we know.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
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