Moms Picking and Choosing Their Battles
A few weeks ago, Marisol Valles Garcia was hailed by many as the bravest woman in the world. Marisol, a new mom and a criminology student, is the only person in a drug infested mexican municipality willing to take on the role of top cop. That’s right, the new police chief in town is a mom and she’s only 20. Armed without guns and only a 13-person police force, mostly comprised of women, her strategy for this battle is to take a non-violent approach that focuses on building a sense of trust between authorities and the community. “We have to try something new,” says Valles Garcia. Is she scared? Of course she is “…. but I really had the desire to do something for my community.” Where does a 20-year old new mom find that kind of inner strength? How does she conjure up that kind of courage? From a desire to help her community?
She is inspiring. To me anyway and how I might approach my battles. For instance, I have an on-going battle with my 11-year old son. He is addicted to multiple forms of communication. At any given time of the day, he is either texting on the cell phone, talking on Skype or Facebook-ing. Sometimes he’s doing all three at once. Ironically, while he seems to be a master at communicating with the other 11 and 12-year old tweenagers at large, I can barely get an audible response, let alone a nod, to a simple question such as …”How was your day?” It maddens me, frustrates and drains me. It’s a daily battle and occasionally, it gets ugly. I find myself becoming hostile even and the angrier I get, the less I hear him speak, to me that is. So maybe I should take a que from this 20-year old new mom. Perhaps I need to try something new, take a less demanding, more peaceful approach, build trust and draw my strength from a fearless desire to have a relationship with my son. If Marisol has the courage to take on a drug cartel, surely I can get through to just one growing boy or at least try.
I am curious, what’s your battle? Who inspires you? Where do you draw your strength? How do you get through?
Photo Credit: Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images
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My battle is mostly in my head right now, as I gear up for the technology battle sure to come. I asked my 9 year old how many kids in his class had cellphones (none, whew), and then I told him about all the communication breakdowns that come with texting, etc, and how he wasn’t likely to be getting a phone when his friends did. He doesn’t care at this point, though he suggested maybe he could just have a phone that didn’t text (um, I don’t think a rotary phone will fit in your pocket…). He doesn’t have a Wii, or a DS, either, and though he sometimes whines about it, so far we’ve been okay. I draw strength when I hear him say “usually kids who spend all their time doing that stuff don’t read much, and I like to read” (sure he’s just spouting all the stuff I feed to him, but that’s the same way he learned to count and say the alphabet many years ago, and those things have served him well, so why shouldn’t this?!)
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