I Took the Strong Moms Empowerment Pledge and a Printable

This is an uncompensated post through my affiliation with One2OneNetwork. Opinions expressed here, as usual,  are my own.

I know... this is not a craft or chocolate post. But in addition to being addicted to crafts and chocolate, I'm addicted to being a mom. Maybe not something that my 20 year old son would want to hear but he already knows it's an affliction for which there is no cure and I think he's pretty OK with it. No College Boy, I am not trying to convince you to be Facebook friends. I Twitter stalk you instead mwah!

So why am I writing this? Because even though my son is technically an adult, I'll be a mom forever. And one thing I know after having been a mom for 20 years is that moms need to empower and support other moms. Mr. Chocolate has been an extraordinary parenting partner, but sometimes "It's a mom thing".

I had my son during what I think was the height of "the Mommy wars" , a term I always loathed. I was never at war with another mother. The moms I've been fortunate enough to know throughout my trip down "mommy-hood lane" took a practical approach to motherhood. How do we all make this work for all of us? What's right for my family? Some of us stayed home. Some of us didn't. Some of us had plans change and rugs pulled out from under us.  None of us were better or worse than each other. We did what was right for us and left the judging to Judge Judy and the other wearers of black robes.

It seemed that this false narrative (and I believe manufactured) competition had dissipated but there was a recent online re-hashing of it when one mom judged another mom for being on her phone while at the park with kids yada yada yada and round things went again.  I'm not going to get into that here.

I think why I've been so happy blogging is because I've met even more moms who don't have a rigid "there is a right and wrong way to be a mom". I mean other than not letting your kids play with sharp knives and matches or forgetting them on top of the car kind of wrong. 

I've met moms who blog as an escape, as a full time business, as a side job, ( and some dads too!) and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive and clearly all of these mompreneurs have their kids best interests at the forefront of their minds.  If the so called "mommy wars" are still going on, I am grateful I don't see that in my online interactions.

Life isn't perfect for any of us, but it's so much easier when we're there for each other instead of at each other don't you think? So that's why I am writing this post and why I took the "Strong Moms Empowerment Pledge" . I want to thank every mom who's been there for me throughout my time as a mom. From The Mumster (aka my mom) real life besties with whom I survived the teen years, to those of you whom I may never meet face to face. Moms rock and we need to support each other!

If you want to take the Strong Moms Empowerment pledge and / or show your support for moms you can go here: Strong Moms Empower.

Oh and for all you moms , I made a printable too:

Click to bring to full resolution; right click to save as.