Let Go of the Guilt! Tamara Shares a Family Anecdote
Being an entrepreneur or a working mom takes time away from your kids. And yes -- for most moms I know, there is the underlying guilt that accompanies it. But at the same time, it is important to look at the other side of the coin -- how does being a happy, confident entrepreneur and /or working mom reflect on your children in positive ways?
I bring up this point because of a recent experience with my own family -- specifically my daughters, who are 4 and 6 years old. All through dinner one evening they begged me for dessert, and I agreed that we could have chocolate pudding when we finished. So I got them started on the pudding, ran to check a few last-minute emails, and came back 5 minutes later -- and found the girls mixing raisins, milk and other things into the pudding. Surprised, I said, "What are you doing?" My six-year-old then explained exactly what they were doing: "Mom, we're creating our own brand." I almost fell over.
The girls continued their game saying things like, "What should we do about packaging?" and, "How can we make this famous all around the world?" -- with no prompting from me. I was amazed to discover they had picked all this up from conversations between me and my husband, and the creative influence all of this had on them. The game continued for days, as the girls asked me to keep working on their "secret pudding recipe."
So what is my point? Moms, don't be so hard on yourselves. While you may not be around every single minute of the day, you are giving your children other gifts you're hardly aware of until a moment like this -- a creative spirit and confidence to do and try new things. I feel these gifts will continue giving to my girls throughout their lives, creating confident, creative women who know no boundaries.
As for the guilt -- I'm sure it will come creeping back when I least expect it. (It always does.) But at that point, I will remind myself of this story -- and how things are not always so black-and-white.
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I love this! My husband and I both have a long history of working for start-ups and I hope our daughters (4 and 1) inherit/absorb our entrepreneurial spirit like your kids have.
Thank you for sharing this great story. My father was my inspiration as you and your husband are to your children and hopefully I to mine. Still loving the new site and discovering more information within it. Have a great weekend. Jackie
Tamara-
What a great story. I felt guilty on the opposite spectrum. We recently moved from Indianapolis to Green Bay and prior to our move I was involved in EVERYTHING w/ my kids school. My dream of seeing my patented product through was put on the back burner. You know, the putting yourself last syndrome. Anyway, even though moving was the last thing I wanted to do, I kept thinking of how finally I can work on this 3 year dream of mine so ulitmately I looked forward to the move and how I would work 'less' at their school and 'more' on my dreams. The guilt came in though when the kids came home from school one day asking "what I did all day" and even though they've known about my patented idea, I think that I set them up to believe that all that I could do or be was the mom that helped out a school. It was one of those things that was moment of realization for me that said, it's ok to work on this....