
First, ahem, before I begin....New Moon was amazing. Totally worth the 3 hours I waited in line to get a good seat. And the lost sleep. I felt young and fun and I'm so glad I went. Go see it now!!
Did you ever watch JEM the cartoon from the 80's? My sister and I were obsessed with it. We watched it every Saturday. Now, watch this clip, but change the words "Truly Outrageous" to "Truly Authentic" and pretend I'm JEM. OK? Please? I've always wanted to be a 6 ft tall gorgeous blond secret rock star. JEM was Hannah Montana in the 80's but WAY cooler!!
This past week my blogirlfriend Tammy over at Keep in Touch with Mommakin tagged me with a really cool "title". It's Theta Mom---stands for The Truly Authentic Mom. Pretty cool, eh? Thanks, Mommakin. I'm glad you now there's no B.S. here. (Now the rest of the day you'll be singing "Tiff! She's truly authentic! Truly, truly, truly authentic! Whoah, TIFF!!!" I apologize for that.
Now, being tagged as a Theta Mom has some responsibilities and one of them is that I share five experiences that have shaped me as a true authentic mom. The other is that I tag five other goyles who I think bring a certain sense of authenticity to the title of mom. I really don't like having to pick out people because I think you're all pretty great. But them's the rules.
Now Tammy is way cooler than I am and had her kids help her decide what makes her a Theta Mom. I've been racking my brain all week trying to think of a creative way to do it. I got nothing. It's just gonna be plain old me talking.
So here are my 5 experiences that have shaped me as a Theta Mom....
1.) Shocked as you all will be...Olivia's diagnosis. How could that not shape me?? When you have a child with special needs, you have no choice but to be authentic. If you want to be a great Mom for them, that is. I guess you could be fake and pretend that it's all roses all the time...but it ain't. I think if I hadn't had her, and had her first, I would have been a "checklist Mom". Walking? Check. Talking? Check. ABCs? Check. But I had to throw all of that out the window and just be real. It sucks at times but it is the way it is.
2.) Having Gabriel 13 months later. I walked around for 3 days saying "Holy shit." How on Earth was I going to do this? I had to be real with myself that it was going to be tough. I was going to be exhausted. But these two kids needed me. So, I did it. But I can promise I was always real.
3.) Leaving my high school teaching position to work from home. I put my family first. I miss teaching in the classroom. I loved my job. But there was just no way that it was the right choice for our family at the time.
4.) My depression after having Matthew. I know now that I had depression after Olivia and Gabriel. But it was undiagnosed. With Matthew, I just couldn't ignore it anymore. I was embarrassed that I was depressed and needed meds at first. But then my doctor helped me realize that having dperession is just like having diabetes or some other medical condition that you have to take care of. It's not because I'm weak or just "can't get over it"...it's. a. medical. condition.
5.) Watching my kids in school and with their friends. Is there anything that makes you feel like you are doing a good job than to see your kids succeeding in school both socially and academically? To see them make good friends, make good choices and feel good about themselves makes me feel like I must be doing something right.
So there you have it. I'm a Theta Mom. Thank you so much, Tammy, for that title. It really means the world to me!! And you know I'm not B.S.ing!!
Now onto the tagging....here are the Moms I'm tagging as Theta Moms today...
1.) Laura at Kiddie Kaleidoscope
2.) Jenny Penny at Welcome to my Momplex
3.) Joyce at Class of 2008 (when Sarah lets her take over!)
4.) Lindy at Future Blackmail
5.) Gibby at Lost in Suburban Bliss
6.) Kristen at The Beautiful Cayman Cindy
To all the Theta Moms out there....keep it real! ;)




















