Good Mother

I have been a mother since I was 17 years old. My oldest is 30. Every few months I ask my kids what they think I can do to be a better mother. For years each of them would mention my anger and yelling. I have a list of ten questions and as the years progressed, they only mentioned my level of anger and frustration.

I knew I had an issue with anger and I did my best to deal with the issues that was causing them. Yesterday, my 19 year-old son came told me that I seem a lot happier. He said, "You seem happy. You don't get a near as mad as you used to. I remember how you would always ask what you could change and you actually did it."

I said, "Son, what kids don't realize is most parents still have a lot of growing to do. We grow up with our kids. I'm the type of parent who chose to enlist help from you guys so I could work on what was keeping me from having a closer relationship with each of you. Each time I went down my checklist, all of you focused on the same area, so I did my best to make the necessary changes."

I think my willingness to respect my children makes me a good mother.