What Does It Take to be a Good Mom?

I have a confession to make.

While I normally hate reality TV, I have this guilty obsession.  

When the store is quiet and there is no one around to see, I have been sucked into the show Wife Swap.

It's terrible, I know.  Like what I imagine a train wreck would be like...

Seriously, don't these people know the producers are going to find some family that is the polar opposite of everything that they think, feel, and believe and throw them into that household?  And yet they always seem shocked.  Shocked with how the other "half" lives.  

Because seriously, most normal families never live like any of that...

Most of us don't have a mom, dad, AND girlfriend all living in the same house...

Or have our Best Guy Friend "Princess" raising our son...

Or let our children be "unschooled"...

I know there are pros and cons to all parenting styles and each child is different, but with the celebration of Mothers day coming, I'm asking What does it take to be a good mom?

I admit that I am a little lax when it comes to my parenting style sometimes.  I feel like I fall in the middle of most of these Extremes that I see.  Dear Hubby feels like I'm a bit of a Push Over sometimes.  My kids say I'm the best mother EVER (no, there's no bribery there..) 

And sometimes I feel like all of the above and somewhere between.

For I let my kids make messes....

I let them get away with things...

I let my kids play....we are super silly sometimes.

But we are also serious at times.

I feel like there is a fine line between letting kids be kids and teaching them to be men and women you like and can count on.  There's a time for both.

As you think about your own mother this mother's day and your own parenting, are there things that you would do again?  Are there things you would change and try over?

The thing I like the most about Wife Swap is that in the end, most of the families learn something from each other...no matter how small it may be.  I like to think that we all have ways that we can be better and we can all learn from each other.

What do you think?