Today I saw a hilarious video that shows three mothers talking about all of the ways they’re failing at motherhood, according to all the articles and videos that have been passed around on Facebook.
I’m a terrible mom, one laments. I told Valerie she was pretty.
Oh no! another scolds her. Didn’t you get that article I sent you?
I know! I forgot! says the bad mother. I’m not supposed to comment on her appearance. I’m just supposed to say, “You exist.”
And, they go on and on confessing all of the ways that they are messing up this parenting gig, according to the internet. We mamas laugh at the video because it is true that being a mother these days is fraught will all kinds of ridiculous warnings and threats that we are ruining our children. We really do live with constant panic over all the things we are or aren’t supposed to be saying and doing.
But, we have got to stop, and here’s why.
The majority of the articles and parenting advice that float around the internet are dispensed by people who have a completely opposite worldview of the one that we have as Christians. So, we Christian mamas need to stop letting people who have no understanding of our values or priorities decide how we need to be raising our kids. We wouldn’t go down to the office of an atheist professor and ask him for parenting advice. We would go to our pastor or to a trusted church friend or to our parents. So, why do we read a bunch of articles written by people who are lost and wandering and clinging to nothing but humanistic psychology and worldly wisdom and then get all worked up if we aren’t doing things the way they say we should?
We have a guide for raising our children: it’s the Bible. We have a community for supporting us and offering help and advice when we need it: our church. And, if we want to take to the internet to seek parenting wisdom, let’s go to people who have the same goals in mind as we do: raising godly, kind, humble kids who are confident that they are children of the one true God, and are poised to do great things for His kingdom.
Everything else is just fuel for unwarranted mom guilt.
It’s time to filter, mamas. It’s time to consider the source. Then we’ll begin to break the chains that have been forged between our hands and feet and the world’s ridiculous, kid-centered wisdom. We’ll remember that we, dear mothers, are the hands and feet of Christ, in our homes, and in the lives of our kids. And, He has perfectly equipped us to do His work here.
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Click on the video below to see the hilarious parody of modern motherhood, which is just a little too close to reality.
You are right, and that video is hilarious! The internet is all the time telling us not to listen to advice from our mothers, but we need to be careful about all the advice we listen to. Encouragement is what Moms need mostly anyway. I have a love/hate relationship with the internet though.
I know, Jennifer. The internet is awesome, and it’s also a total mess. Thanks so much for your comment!
“I appreciate your effort” on this one ;0)
or…in other words…good job <3
Ha, Laura! Thank you!
I struggle with this a lot because my in laws consistently try to guide me on ways they raised their children, all absent of God. My mother in law specifically try’s to tell us we have a poverty mentality because we don’t chase after money. I’ve had to be clear on many occasions they don’t live with the same principles and morals we do, they don’t need to get it, nor do I need to explain it. Great post!
That’s got to be tough, serene! Thanks so much for sharing.
Yes, the bible is the family’s guide to proper living. Good word
In defense of some of the mamas, sometimes the loudest, most confident voices within the Church only claim to love it because it’s a large, captive audience of people eager to be better. There’s quite a few women pretending to follow the Bible that either know nothing about it, or even worse, know what it says and still preach a self-centered “gospel.”
So the best advice here is to know and follow our Bible.