15 Aug Our Family Mottos
- We Can Do Anything
- Do the Right Thing Because It’s the Right Thing to Do
- Ta Da
- Be Grateful
As back to school time arrives, we are reflecting on our family mottos. What a beautiful busy time of the year to keep it all in check.
So as we cram in reading as many books as possible to meet the summer reading requirements, I had to pull out the ol’ “We Can Do Anything.” My sweet witty daughter loves to add inflections and character voices to her reading and while it’s charming, it takes forever to get through even the simplest of books as she stops to share anecdotal insights and act out various stories. Then she tires quickly and says she can’t do it, meaning she doesn’t want to finish the book. So I say “We can do anything…Remember when you went ice skating for the first time?” This struggle and accomplishment has been a shining beacon for us in times of doubt. Our first aupair, Yuliya, and I took Victoria skating at the tender age of 3. She was cold. She fell a lot. But we kept trying and pushed through the sore ankles and quickly appearing blisters. After tears and determination, we each grabbed a hand and worked together to learn this new skill. And we did it! Victoria now often reminisces on her success learning what seemed at the time to be an impossible new skill.
Similarly we will learn to read books enthusiastically with wonder and inspiration and we will finish them. And for me, the motto has a “mom meaning”…even when I want to give up and let her fail I know we can do anything which includes keeping my attitude and patience in check to guide her (and myself) to strive and to grow.
Our 2nd family motto came to us from my sister, Onji. It’s “Ta Da.” Seemingly superficial, it came from the context of adjusting attitudes. When her daughter would get a boo-boo or bump her head instead of always giving hugs and reinforcement Onji would simply redirect Mia’s emotion by raising her hands in the air and giving a big Olympic finish with “ta da.” For the smaller less substantial wounds this has been an excellent tool to move on instead of getting stuck in the little things. And again, my “mommy meaning” reminds me that not everything is worth stressing over. “Ta Da and move on.”
By the way, Onji also took our first family motto and customized it for her family. Instead of “We can do anything” they say “We can do anything better than you.”’ It fits them.
Finally, almost everything we needed to learn so far we learned in Kindergarten…from Mrs. Perry. There are so many lessons we learned from this amazing teacher who melted my heart when tears came to her eyes when she told me about the joy she gets when a child in her class actually learns to read and gets it for the first time. She taught us “We Do the Right Thing Because It’s the Right Thing to Do.” Wow does that ever apply to so many situations? Whether it’s picking up our dog, Bunny’s poo or helping with chores around the house or negotiating contracts at work. We say this to each other nearly every day. Such a simple yet powerful lesson.
And lately we’ve added “Be Grateful.” Amazing how this transformative thought can act as a reset button just when we need it most.
Please share your family mottos!
No Comments