I'm on my way to bed, but I feel the need to get something off my chest first. Today I watched the stories of the "thing" that happened when Momspo just launched on Instagram a few months ago. It's sad that people want to hurt other people, but it's also very SCARY!!!!!!! You want to know the scary part? When my 11month old doesn't want to eat his food, we "fake" take a bite and say "Mmmm, yummy, nom, nom, nom..." Then all of a sudden he's interested in eating his food because we approved and tasted it first. The chances are very good that the two women who flagged Momspo are mothers... Mothers are supposed to set an example, show love and kindness, and mothers are not supposed to be bullies. Yes, bullies!!!!! What happened with Momspo was a vindictive move and typical behaviour of a bully. We can't expect to raise kind children if we're not setting an example. I'm not saying that parents aren't allowed to make mistakes. I'm just saying that our children mimic our behaviour. That's scary! Our actions speak louder than words. We live in a cruel and broken world, motherhood is damn hard, life throws lemons at you - we can at least be nice to each other!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm going to throw in a little #TruthBomb here - the first time I heard about Momspo I was a little jealous too. I knew that this platform is going to break the South African internet ;), but I also know that celebrating and supporting each other's dreams, doesn't make your light shine dimmer. I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT! As soon as I saw the Momspo website and how cool it is that you can post articles, ask questions, etc. I was so excited! That's one of the reasons why I started my own blog - I wanted to support other moms. In the short time that Momspo is live it really helped me a lot. Bongi's blog about babywearing gave me the idea to give it one last try (my son didn't really like babywearing at first.) Riona's blog had me in tears and it was so inspiring to read. Momspo was exactly what S.A. moms needed and I'm so excited about what the future for Momspo holds, BUT I just want to end this conversation with this one plead/question/statement: The next time you say #StopBullying #WomenEmpowerment #SupportMoms or anything like that - just look yourself in the mirror and ask: Do I practice what I preach? Because the scariest thing of being a parent is that your children don't do what you ask or tell them to do, they do what they see - from YOU!!!
xxx
Hi