Daily Mood Quotes - October 20, 2011

 

Daily Mood Quotes

Day 170 – October 20, 2011

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

~Colin Powell

I have a lot of respect for Colin Powell, I do not know him personally but his leadership skills have been demonstrated globally and he leads with integrity, respect and confidence. I agree with his quote. The minute, the second “soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you cease to be leader.” However, leadership isn't just for the military. Everyone has in some way, shape or form been a leader at one time in their life. Even children, in as simple of a setting as a elementary school classroom. I have been a parent for 26 years, and as much as we may try to deny it, parents are leaders everyday...

Recently, I was asked if I had any regrets being a stay-at-home mom for so many years, and without hesitation my response was a resounding, “no.” To push the envelope a little bit, she said to me, “but you could have had a great career, been respected, been rich, been a name? I look at her and said, “I have a great career, I'm a mom, I am respected, have you met my children?, I am rich, not with money, but with love and great relationships with my children, I don't have to guess, their favorite color, their favorite meal, their favorite book or television program...I know. I don't have to push them to talk, they come to me, and as far as being a name, what greater name is there in the world, than “mom or dad?”

In the movie Mr. Mom, Jack Butler (played by Michael Keaton), a laid-off (fired) automotive worker and his wife Caroline (Teri Garr), had an argument about his experience being a full-time stay-at-home dad for the first time, it went like this;

Jack Butler: My brain is like oatmeal. I yelled at Kenny today for coloring outside the lines! Megan and I are starting to watch the same TV shows, and I'm liking them! I'm losing it.

Caroline: Honey, I know what you're talking about. I've been there myself, alright?

Jack Butler: Well, if you're so unhappy, why don't you say something about it?

Caroline: Because I wasn't unhappy! Look, maybe I was a little confused, maybe I was a little frustrated, but I knew what I was doing was important, because it means something to raise human beings. What saw me through was pride.

Caroline: I've pride in this house, I've pride with my kids, and I've pride being Mrs. Jack Butler!

Well, I'm not Mrs. Jack Butler, but the pride is the same. I have sacrificed many jobs and what would have been a great career because my children were my first priority. Yes, times have been hard, and instead of complaining about it, I used it as a teaching tool for handling money, following budgets, and teaching what the differences are between the “wants” and the “needs.” When ask why I choose parenting over a career, the answer was simple, you have a small amount of time to make a positive impact, be a positive influence, teach what is right and what is wrong, in your children's lives, and when that time is past, you can never get it back. Then peer pressure, television role models (Lindsay Lohan), and magazine models take over.

In less than a year I will graduate with a Master's Degree and in the last nearly six years, my children have watched me grow, change and demonstrate the benefits of a higher education. They have college on their radar. Parenting never ends, just the amount of time you spend doing the nuts and bolts of it. The maintenance is ongoing. I don't know if my education will win me a “prestigious” job after all of my children on their own, but as I look at my children and talk with them I realize that being a stay-at-home mom is a very prestigious job to start with. It was a good thing, no, it is a great thing.

Albert Schweitzer said it best, “Example is leadership.”

What example will you set today?

Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote

Thank you for reading.