Lessons Learned....

I am amazed to look at my life and see some of the important lessons that I have learned...

I have never been one who was TOTALLY obsessed with material things. DON'T GET ME WRONG, I liked nice things when I was a teen. Labels VERY MUCH mattered to me!

That, however, was more my mom's doing. I do not think that I would have been like that had I been raised to NOT care about those things.... See, my mom felt so bad that she was divorced that she worked herself sick to provide my sister and myself with only the BEST of everything. It was crazy! We wore name brand from our heads to our toes... Totally unnecessary when I look back. Worse, was what she had to do to maintain that... :( Often, she had to work 2 jobs since my father literally gave her nothing! And, while we never felt like we did without anything, she suffered the consequences and it was NOT necessary. And, the one thing that we DID do without was HER. I have many memories of missing my mom terribly as I had to go to bed during the week without seeing her while she worked. Just spending time with her was what I wanted.... :(

Now that I am a mom myself, I look at the choices I make. My career, the clothing, the luxuries, etc... The choices I make are always made with my children in mind. They are my priority. I want them to feel that they had the MOST of their mother. So, I try to give them the HAPPY MIDDLE. I get them pretty much everything they want (within reason) yet do not go to the extravagant. I also spend the most amount of time with them without smothering. I do not want them to look back and wish that they had more time with me. Time is something so easy to give, but something that you can never go back and get...

So, while I will always say that my mother was my best friend and someone that I learned so much from, I will also say that I learned some things that I did not want to do. I have learned that I do not want to kill myself trying to get my children things that they do not need. I do not want to spend all of my time working to get said things and thus being unable to spend any time with my children. Children are only young once. I want to be able to enjoy them while they still enjoy my company. I know that time frame does not last long....