Being proud to be “just a mom” & celebrating at home mothering

Hey, everyone, it's Alexandra. I hope you're having a great day. So today's video is about celebrating at home motherhood. And I have a chicken. Okay, go. Okay. He's gonna help you. Okay. Celebrating at home motherhood and. Or being proud to be just a moment. So just a mom, I said, because I think a lot of times moms are like, oh, I'm just a mom. Like, that's like, hey, just a mom. Which is a big deal. So before I forget, though, my daughter did want to make sure that I got her art. She wanted paint my arm for the video. So there we go, fully decked out and. Okay, so motherhood, this is. I think there's so many different ways that moms can approach work. You know, you can go back to work, you can run a corporation, you can create a business, a corporation, you can work part time, you can not go back to work. But I think any way that you, any way you slice it and choose to do it, whatever feels authentic for you, you are working. It's work. So I think a lot of times mom will be, oh, I'm just at home with the kids and. And they don't feel as proud as somebody who's like, oh, I run a corporation. And I just don't think in our culture that it's celebrated enough for moms to actually make the powerful, authentic choice to be home with their kids. And this is not to get into creating any guilt, any shame around this or, you know, the mommy wars that go on. I think kids can be healthy in any of those dynamics. They need healthy, happy parents, moms, and whatever way that's going to work for you and your family, rock it. So. But this is just a special thing that I do notice with at home moms. And I think we just really need to shift our perspective on it. And I say this because I've had to do this a lot because I would say I'm mostly an at home mom. My primary work is really mothering. And then I have, you know, we have Optimize, which I'm co founder and chief goddess of. And I've always kind of done a little bit with that. Whether I'm meditations or I've interviewed people or I've created classes. I've had moments where I did more creativity than others and more work in that way. But most of my hours are kid mother related. And I had a hard time with that actually to start. And I feel like just for me, there was the re. There's the reframe of looking it as noble, sacred work. I think about, you know, like, we all want to see so much change in the world, and I think that starts with our families. And I said, I said this in another video. Mother Teresa said, if you want to change the world, go back, go home and love your family. And I look at the corporations, the institutions, the government, whatever we want, whatever systems that we would like to be transformed, there's people that are running that, and people learn how to love and respect, and they learn about character and virtue and all of that in their family unit. So. And you can ask any therapist. You know, people do a lot of work on their childhood of like healing that. So I think it's really inspiring to imagine creating an environment for our children, a healthy environment. And that does take intention, deliberate focus and work and awareness and developing yourself as a person so that you can give your kids what you want to give. As Brene Brown says, you can only give what you have. So I think that's an important aspect too. So you need to keep developing yourself so your kids see you growing and changing and learning as well. So going back to the corporations, the business is the things that we want to see that we have the opportunity to impact the next generation. And it may seem small, especially when we have all the mundane things. You know, you got the cooking and the cleaning and the squabbling and the crying and, you know, up at night and all the obstacles that all moms face. But there, there's. If we can, like, rise above and see that we're helping a human develop and that they can be change makers. I believe that all kids can be change makers. All of us can. We all have the ability to make a difference and how wonderful for our kids not to go through maybe some of the stuff that we went through less than optimal parenting or just experiences, they will have challenges. There's no way to avoid that, but that we can give them that foundation. So I just really, you know, this is really just a celebration for all moms, but the moms of at home mothering, who are at home with their kids day in and day out, like just high fives. I celebrate you because I know the hard work that you do. I know how committed you are. I also know the challenges of the mundane activities that goes with it. And I think just to remind ourselves of why we're doing what we're doing is so important. And I think there's also this idea that if you step away from your career, that you will be missing out. And I guess there's some elements of that is true on the career ladder, you know, you didn't develop yourself. Could I have been more career successful if I would have only been focused on my career the last eight years? Of course. But I don't think that I would have developed these skills that I've developed from motherhood that is going to like totally impact me creatively what I do the next phase of my life as the kids get older. So I think there's no, there's nothing that you lose by being at home with your kids. And as I say that, I also think as you are at home with your kids, you need to stay connected to your passions. That is so vitally important because your kids need to see you doing something that you love. Which is one of the reasons that I'm so excited about doing these. I love to do these and my kids are jumping on the trampoline, playing with the water and having a good time. But they know that this is important to me. So I talk to them about these things and I talk to them about why I love to do it. So I think moms need to find that time to do the things that light them up because that's also a demonstration for the kids. So we can get locked up in all the things that need to get done and we can forget about our self care and we can get caught up of not investing our time and our passions and our creativity. And I think a lot of times we think oh well, we're not getting paid for it so we shouldn't invest our time, money and energy into those things. But I disagree. You need to invest your time, money and energy and you actualizing your potential because your kids are watching and they are learning. And if you want to have the biggest impact on your kids, you need to be on your self actualization journal journey and showing them what it looks like to learn new things, to try new things, to experiment, to follow a passion. So don't forget about yourself and your self care while also feeling super proud about the work that you are doing. Even if society doesn't celebrate it and you're not getting paid for it, it is equally valuable than somebody who's getting paid. I just, I think that is by far the truth of the matter. What could be more important than creating healthy children for the next generation? So this video just getting paint all over me. This, this video is really just high fives. Big loves to all the moms out there, like I said, but especially this one is for the at homes. The at home moms that you are working, everything that you are doing may go unnoticed. It may seem like you're invisible to the outside world because only you knows what goes on in your house and how you parent and how you mother and how deep your commitment is to raising the kids that you want to raise. But, yeah, just to really say yes, thank you for doing what you do. I appreciate you. I see you, I acknowledge you, I celebrate you. And I'm sending you lots of love and blessings to you and to your family. So that's it for today. Have a great one.