Are You a Good Mother?

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

Here is how to tell if you are a good mother or a bad mother.

As moms, we are constantly worried whether or not that we are good mothers. Our child falls at the playground: bad mother. We hold our baby through three hours of colicky crying without once getting upset: good mother. We let our child eat candy before dinner: bad mother. You get the picture.

We are quick to judge other mothers, too. That one yells too much, this one doesn't discipline her child, that other one over there lets her child watch television all day. To the outside world, any mother who is not perfect all of the time is a bad mother.

There has been a lot of talk about being bad mothers recently, prompted no doubt by media headlines. Nadia Suleman, who has a bevy of children she may not be able to afford, Kate Gosselin from Jon and Kate Plus Eight who has been criticized for exploiting her children on television, Ayelet Waldman a mother who wrote an article talking about how she loves her husband more than her kids and received an inordinate amount of hate mail (and who has a new book out called "Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities, and Occasional Moments of Grace.")

So are you a good mother? Well, the fact that you are reading this parenting blog would indicate that the answer is a resounding yes. After all, you care enough to learn all there is to know about taking good care of your child. But lets explore further. The question is more simple than you might think.

Do you snort cocaine off of your baby's belly? Leave your two-year-old in the car while you go gamble for three hours at the casino? Hang your child by the hair when he or she won't listen? (These are all stories straight from the headlines.) Then you are a bad mother.

Do you want to do the best that you can, and would you throw yourself under a bus for this little person if you had to? Do you love your child and put effort into raising him or her to be a healthy, happy adult? Never intentionally harm your baby (not being able to catch him every time he falls doesn't count)? Are you constantly doing the best you can for your child? Then you are a good mother.

Case closed.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, online content manager, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of the woods but close enough to Target and Home Depot.

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