A shout out to my mom for the blog topic today. I asked her if she had something she thought would be helpful, and it didn’t take her even a minute to reel this one off.
At age 75, there is wisdom that comes with this idea — and that doesn’t get past me. Her primary example was that when her mother passed, her dad married again, and from age 30 to 74, my mom had a stepmother who tried to fill the shoes that honestly couldn’t be filled. Her revelation that it was unfair to expect her stepmom to play the role of her mom didn’t come until last year before my grandmother passed. She’s the first to admit that 44 years was absolutely too long to hold this thought and expectation (thus the idea for the blog, hoping it would help someone else).
The bottom line here is that we should try to accept people to show up as they are and not tie our happiness to expectations we come up with.
Here’s the question: What are some parts of your life where you have expectations that may not be serving you well?
- Are you expecting your children or grandchildren to call you when it doesn’t necessarily fit in with their schedules?
- Are you expecting your significant other to know that you have a childhood expectation of having a well thought out and over-the-top birthday celebration?
- Are you expecting your neighbor, sister, brother, children, etc. to see the world as you do?
I love the reminder that sitting without judgement in a relationship and calling ourselves out on setting up unfair scenarios in our minds will make us all better. Thanks for the idea, Mom.
Have an amazing week!