Posted on January 20, 2010 by Cindy Cunningham

Years ago I remember seeing a little sign in a store that said “If mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy”, I kind of chuckled to myself and thought it was cute.  Little did I know just how true and meaningful this statement is until I became a mom myself.

Three kids later I quickly realized my mood really does set the tone for the day. I can remember feeling seriously annoyed by this as I felt entitled to my bad mood, and even more annoyed that just cause I was in a bad mood everyone else seemed to be. That is an amazing thing about kids, they are a true reflection of our behaviour.

I soon began to realize that my happiness and wellbeing was of the utmost importance to myself and my family. For me this means making more time for myself, reading uplifting and positive stories, eating properly, taking my vitamins everyday, and one of the most important things I find is making time to exercise as this really is the key to having more energy.

My mother shared an interesting story with me today about my Oma (that is Grandma in Dutch), which really drove the point home for me about the importance of taking care of yourself as a mother.

During World War 2 my Oma was in a concentration camp for 5 years with 3 young children. She talked about how alot of the mother’s would give up their food rations for their children to eat and would in turn go hungry. Not my Oma though, as selfish as she seemed, she kept her food rations for herself and was actually frustrated with the women who did not do the same. In her mind it seemed quite evident that if you did not take care of yourself, how could you take care of your children. Sadly enough the mother’s in that concentration camp who sacrificed their wellbeing for their children all died and left their children behind to be looked after by the other mothers.

To all moms and moms to be, please take care of yourselves, it may seem selfish but the happiness and wellbeing of your children depend on it. And what a great role model you become for your children when they see you care so much for yourself, and when they grow up they will have the same care and respect for themselves as well as others. Isn’t that what we all really want for our children, to see them love and respect themselves, so let’s show them how to do it!! Do something nice for yourself today, you deserve it!

Cindy Cunningham