The other day I was reading a devotional that really convicted my heart. It was about trusting in your own ways and interfering in other people’s business. Almost immediately what came to my mind were my children. It dawned on me that I had become a meddling mother.
One of the things this devotional said was that if you are frantically trying to figure out what to do—panic mode—then this is a clue that we have to slow down, take a deep breath and most importantly…take a giant step back.
There are many occasions as a parent in which we can find ourselves in panic mode, trying to come up with a plan. It can be a small moment, in which we discover that our child has left behind their backpack and we know it might impact their grade. So we panic…do we bring it to school or allow them to learn a hard lesson?
But there will also be much bigger moments in life, where panicking comes even easier. I have recently experienced such an occasion. In desperation you want to fix things, change things or whatever the circumstance may be.
At the very least, we may make a bigger mess out of things. But more importantly, we are preventing our children from learning and growing. We can’t fix everything.
So instead of panicking (which tends to be my first reaction), we need to slow down. That means to bring in the reins. We need to take a deep breath, which allows us to relax. For some you might need to take it a step further by saying a prayer, taking a walk, listening to some music…whatever works best to help you calm down.
While all of this is good and can help settle our hearts and minds, it won’t do any good unless we do the next thing—take a giant step back. That means we have to let go of the situation. We have to give it time or maybe take a new direction. But we won’t know unless we take time to think it
through.
Meddling moms aren’t helping their children and I am really beginning to see this. I don’t mean to meddle because my intentions are always good. But I have made some situations worse and I have prevented my children from learning hard lessons that needed to be learned.
Do you find yourself to be a meddling mom? What can you do to break this pattern?
Related Articles:
We Can’t Always Rescue Our Children
Decisions, Decisions: When to Step Out of the Way
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