{"id":1438,"date":"2013-08-05T10:02:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T16:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/2013\/08\/05\/anger\/"},"modified":"2013-08-05T10:02:13","modified_gmt":"2013-08-05T16:02:13","slug":"anger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/anger\/","title":{"rendered":"Anger"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, Dearest\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.<\/em>
\nHelen Keller<\/p>\n

I began attending MOPS when Lamb (now 8) was just a baby. I enjoyed it, but I hadn\u2019t really let myself go<\/em>, you know? I still had on my \u201cMotherhood is so amazing and I\u2019m loving every minute of it\u201d face. But recently I had been doing some research \u2026 on anger. I had secretly been battling anger as a mom<\/strong>, so humiliated at the emotions that could flare up against my sweet baby, less than a year old. I was certain that no decent mother could ever feel the way I felt. Until I found She\u2019s Gonna Blow<\/em><\/a> by Julie Barnhill. Just seeing the title and cover picture made me realize that I wasn\u2019t alone, and I ordered it immediately. (If you haven\u2019t already, get that book. Read it. You\u2019ll thank me\u2026 and Julie Barnhill, of course.) I started poking around online and found more stories from moms like me. And suddenly, at my next MOPS meeting, I got brave enough to let down my guard.<\/p>\n

I was early. It was just me and Heidi, the Coordinator. I offered to help set up, and we chatted as we worked. I tried to casually broach the topic. I\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t casual. I\u2019m sure it was awkward and embarrassing. I don\u2019t really remember exactly how it went. But I do remember the immense feeling of relief when she looked at me with compassion, not judgment. I remember tearfully saying, \u201cI don\u2019t understand how I can get so angry at someone so little.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know! Me too,\u201d she confessed to me. \u201cWe had a speaker on that a few years ago, but I think it\u2019s time to do it again. You\u2019d be surprised\u2014many of us struggle with anger.\u201d<\/p>\n

And suddenly, it was like I could breathe. I wasn\u2019t alone.<\/em> Heidi didn\u2019t judge and condemn me \u2014 and she also didn\u2019t dismiss it as \u201cno big deal\u201d or excuse it. She met me where I was, and she offered help and encouragement. And although I can\u2019t say that my problem was magically solved, I can honestly say that it lessened. I had been hiding it away in some dark place in my heart, and just like a child sees monsters growing out of their closets at night, the darkness made my issue seem bigger and bigger. Admitting it to someone else brought it into the light \u2014 and it wasn\u2019t a big scary monster seeking to devour me, it was an issue that should and could be addressed.<\/p>\n

Why am I telling you all of this? Because being a mom is hard, and we all know it. When we keep the hard stuff to ourselves, it grows and becomes scary and overwhelming. When we share it with someone who understands, that person can become the flashlight to scare the monsters away. That\u2019s what we moms need to be for each other. And that\u2019s what MOPS is all about, that\u2019s why I love it, have such a heart for it. Because moms need to do life together. We need to wrap our arms around each other and say, \u201cIt\u2019s OK. I\u2019ve been there too. Now let\u2019s move forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll start. It\u2019s been over seven years since I read She\u2019s Gonna Blow<\/em>. But it\u2019s time to get that little guide back out. One of the bittersweet realities of life with Roo is that he stays in every stage longer than a typical child. This was lovely in the infant phase, when we enjoyed a snuggly baby for months while moms and dads around us were saying, \u201cIt goes so fast! Just yesterday they were so tiny and now they don\u2019t want to be held!\u201d But now we\u2019re in the toddler stage, which has many great and fun aspects \u2014 but also has stubbornness, testing of boundaries, tantrums, and lots and LOTS of chasing. And we\u2019ve been in this stage for a long time \u2026 and I\u2019m not really seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n

So yes, moms-like-me, sometimes I feel fed up and \u2014 I\u2019ll say it \u2014 angry. I yell when I shouldn\u2019t. I walk away sometimes because I have to get a grip. It\u2019s embarrassing. But I know that I am not alone. And that gives me strength to know that I can get beyond it. Thanks for joining with me.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move forward together.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello, Dearest\u2026 Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller I began attending MOPS when Lamb (now 8) was just a baby. I enjoyed it, but I hadn\u2019t really let myself go, you know? I still had on my \u201cMotherhood is so amazing and I\u2019m loving every minute of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":12122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,117],"tags":[31,32,124,44,101],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-wellness","tag-fear","tag-friendship","tag-katy","tag-mops","tag-parenting"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}