A Mother I admire and Follow

Many people often say that the person they most look up to is their own mother.

I love and respect my mother because she has taught me so much that many of my friends’ mothers were not able to teach them…. precisely because my mother and father used to call us their grandchildren!

Yes my parents were of a completely different generation, we’re talkin the generation that still sang “God save our gracious Queen” generation. And although I know our country (Trinidad and Tobago) only gained Independence in 1962 for my parents to know that anthem so well means they sang it for years!

But I disgress!

The person I’m writing about today thanks to this wonderful blogging challenge that I’m in is a mother of 7, a wonderful wife to her husband and a woman of Faith, deeply in love with God.

When I first started my entrepreneurial journey which coincided with motherhood I was told….

“Find someone who has what you want, do what they did and you’ll get what they got!”

Tim Erway

So as a budding entrepreneur I went out in search of this person!

The interesting thing is in my mind I was looking for a business person to follow, my heart was searching for something different.

Around that time I had created a vision board….

I wanted to be a mother of a large family, work from home and homeschool my children!

Being a mother of a large family almost surely implied you’d have to homeschool them because you couldn’t possibly afford schooling (or should I say “good” schooling) for that many children. I also knew that I wanted to put my degrees to work, but not in the traditional sense.

So my heart knew exactly what I really wanted and went looking for this person. And you always know who to follow because your heart tells you so.

Her name Bernadette Chin Lee.

I remember sitting in her kitchen one day and one of her teenage children walked in with a friend. They were discussing a party and the pros and cons to going.

The got me off the bat! Teenagers discussing pros and cons of going to a party?!?!? I was intrigued.

The daughter of my friend laid out a strong argument to her friend why they should not go and rather to another activity instead, that way it couldn’t be said that they just “ditched” the party.

After pleasant greetings and goodbyes I turned to her mother and asked one question: “How do I raise a child like that?”

Her response, “Do you really want to know?”

I said yes!

You see I had found what I was looking for. Find someone who has what you want.

Above all things I wanted a big family, but I also wanted children who would become responsible, productive, faith-filled adults.

So I had done the first part. I found someone who had what I wanted.

And every day since then I’ve been learning and implementing, learning and implementing.

And truth is it’s hard. I now understand the meaning behind her first question, “Do you really want to know?”

Being a good parent is quite possibly the most difficult job you will ever have. It take sacrifice on your part, it takes teaching your children sacrifice, it takes loving them enough to allow them to fail so that they will learn, it takes giving up going to church on time so that they will learn to put their clothes in the right place the night before….. and the list can go on and on…

I found my mentor. This mother of 7 children, working from home and doing it all with a serene smile on her face.

It’s not easy being a working mother but the rewards are amazing.

We’re working on something together because I believe more moms need to truly learn how to raise responsible, productive and faith-filled adults.

It will be out soon, so connect with us, stay tuned and join my group!