A confessional of sorts

So I've been thinking lately about how motherhood is stretching me, making me grow and bring things out in me I didn't expect (some good and some bad). One of the things I've been pondering is how I personalize things that my child does. I had one such experience today that did just that. A friend and her little boy came over for lunch today. While the kids were playing, Mia all of the sudden threw a rather large, clunky toy right at the boy's head. Of course, I had to immediately discipline her and make her say sorry...but I also had the distinct feeling of embarrassment. I was embarrassed that MY child threw a toy. I heard myself say, "she's never done this before". In this case it was actually true, but still, I know how it is to hear other moms say that. And many times I have thought to myself, yeah right. Well now I was one of those moms!

So it made me ponder why we as mothers personalize the things our children do as well as the difficult things we experience as moms that are out of our control. Whether it's not getting to breastfeed your baby (at all or not as long as one hoped), or your birth plan not going according to plan at all, or having your child be aggressive, or dealing with tantrums, and on and on the list could go. We start to feel insecure and wonder if we're a bad mother. Do we personalize simply because we are selfish beings at our core? We want others to think we're a good mom? Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it spurs us on to be a better mom. ?? I suppose that's looking for the positive in a pessimistic way. I'm just wondering if there's a positive side to it all...if we SHOULD personalize such things or if we should always be exerting ourselves not to do so. Regardless, I know it's something I experience and in talking to many other moms I know they experience too. There's much comfort in that at least...