You’re not really an angry mom.
Your kitchen, yesterday afternoon. You’re dutifully cooking a healthy dinner, the counters are cluttered with ingredients and dirty dishes.
For some reason, that new rice dish you’re trying doesn’t look quite right. Suddenly, the kids dart through the kitchen, bumping into the counter and nearly knocking over the lemon pepper chicken that’s cooling in its dish.
“Stop running!” Your voice is a bit louder than usual in an attempt to be heard over the laughter but it’s still well within the realm of calm.
A few moments later, while you’re desperately trying to salvage your rice dish, you hear screaming from the other room.
A quick peek reveals your children wrestling on the floor and toys covering every flat surface in sight. You throw your hands up in frustration, take a deep breath, and separate the fighting children.
Without even addressing the wrestling match, you give them your sternest look and say “You two need to get this room cleaned up before dinner.” Stern, but still calm. Hopefully, cleaning will keep them busy.
Back in the kitchen, your rice has burned to the bottom of the pot. You hear your husband’s voice coming from the bathroom, where he’s been hiding for the past 20 minutes.
“Honey! Something’s burning!”
Your back stiffens and you can feel your chest beginning to tighten up. It’s not as easy to overlook his behavior. It would be nice if he’d help you out instead of yelling down from his hideout.
You’re frustrated, angry and overwhelmed. With no hope left of salvaging the rice, you flop the sticky, blackened substance into a serving bowl and call everyone to the table for dinner.
You are tense and tired and annoyed at the mess all around you, but you’re looking forward to sitting down to a meal with your family. So you pull it together and paste a smile on your face.
And then this happens:
“Ew. What is this? I am NOT eating that,” Your child declares, scrunching up his nose in a look of disgust at the burnt rice.
And. you. see. red.
“YES! YOU ARE GOING EAT IT. AND YOU WILL LIKE IT! DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND. ME?”
“Babe,” your husband puts his hand over yours and looks at you with concerned eyes. His look feels condescending, as though he’s somehow superior to you because you can’t control your own emotions.
As if you haven’t already spent hours controlling your emotions.
You just wanted a nice family dinner.
You weren’t doing it for yourself.. you were doing it for them. AND THEY RUINED IT. Right?
Well Mama, I could lecture you about how you are holding yourself to a standard that’s unattainable.
I could lecture you about why you should’ve let your child’s comment roll off your back or why your husband “needed a little quiet time. “
And I could tell you about Foods That Fight Anxiety and Stress Naturally.
But I won’t do that.
Why? Because I am you.
I, too, want a Pinterest perfect home and healthy dinners every night. I want to enjoy the minutes with my family and to be overcome with love when I look at my kids.
I know that kind of life is reserved for Hollywood and Pinterest. But changing that mindset is NOT an easy fix.
Changing that mindset is a Long-term solution and you need something that will work TODAY.
What I’m going to share with you is an easy fix.
It’s an EASY way to change the mood in your home. It’s a tried and true method used from the very beginning of time.
- Hollywood swears by it to elicit an emotional response.
- Churches use it to change the atmosphere of the service.
- Commercials use it to create a lasting impression.
- It has the power to make things feel sad, exciting or even magical (think Christmas).
And YOU can use it to change your mood.
Do you know what “it” is yet?You got it.
Music.
Did you know that Hollywood directors carefully choose the music behind each love scene in order to elicit the exact response they want you to have? If they want you to see a scene from a female perspective, the music is sung by a female!
Think about those sad commercials for animal rescue shelters…. the pictures are actually pretty gruesome. The images alone would likely leave you feeling a bit grossed out! But the music tells you how to feel, and your heart melts for those poor animals.
Using music is a great way to change EVERYONE’S mood in your home.
You can use it to stir up excitement, get everyone calm, or even to get you in the mood.
Sometimes, when everyone is going crazy in the car, I pull up some Disney karaoke on my iPhone and suddenly we are all singing and having fun.
But my absolute FAVORITE trick is turning on what I like to call my “calm mom” playlist when I know I’m going to be in high-stress situations!
Basically – It’s a list of songs that remind me that I DO love my children and that I don’t want to waste my minutes being angry with them. Without even trying, I start feeling all gooey inside and motherly again!
You can grab a free copy of my song list HERE!
Also, if you’d rather not spend time perfecting your exact playlist, you can definitely use Pandora to help you out. (If you’ve never used pandora – it basically reads your mind lol… but seriously.. It’s almost creepy.)
So go blast some good tunes and actually enjoy mothering today!
