Day 349 The Perfect Mom Project

On this 349^th day of my pursuit of mothering perfection, I have started to think that I might have a better shot at perfecting my golf swing (which is terrible) or perhaps even perfecting my driving (I'm not too bad, but I tend to daydream). In my attempt at a mother/daughter moment yesterday, I decided to talk with my girls about the swearing issue while driving to meet Mark at an appointment. The plan was that Aly would then drop me off and head back home, so I thought that perhaps the car ride was a good time to take advantage of a captive audience.


Sounds like a good idea, but my captives did not agree. I assure you I was calm and spoke in a low vocal tone. For some reason although I was doing my best to try to keep the issue of swearing an enlightening moment, my middle daughter asked me "Why are you yelling at us?" All I could think when she said this, was YELLING? YOU HAVE NOT HEARD YELLING YET!!! However, I kept my cool and continued to belabor the point of swearing not being an attractive feminine quality. I also pointed out that there are times when you swear and it just happens (I should know!), but by continuing the habit, you run the risk of a swear word popping out at the worst possible time. Honestly, I am positive that they both were riding along singing La la la la la in their heads and ignoring my every word, so much for my effort at mothering perfection yesterday.

 The upside of our outing was that Aly drove herself and Avery the 17 miles back home in rush hour traffic without a problem. I have to say she was very calm about the prospect of dropping me off and returning home. Then she asked if she could drive both of them the 15 or so miles to our church today since Mark and I will be visiting with some friends and will not be able to go. That's when I think to myself that I might not get it right with everything when it comes to mothering, but my middle daughter has the confidence to drive places on her own, and she wants to go to church even though Mom and Dad are not going. I must be doing something correctly; at least that is what I told myself as I was patting myself on the back.