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Artsy Mom
Jesse Jayne Rutherford, California USA
From Amazing Moms: Parents of the 21st Century Copyright © 2018 Motivational Press. Reprinted with permission. By Hogan Hilling and Elise Cohen Ho.
Amazing Moms: Parents of the 21st Century is the 1st coffee table book to feature moms. It features 115 amazing moms from a variety of family dynamics and 13 countries – USA, Canada, Australia, England, Netherlands, France, Italy, China, Hungary, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Mozambique, and Croatia. It is filled with captivating self-portraits that reveal each mom’s unique personality and joyful photos of their families. The moms bear their souls about the challenges and joys of motherhood and share a wealth of wisdom about their parenting journeys. These moms represent motherhood and femininity at its best. Amazing Moms is the companion coffee table book to DADLY Dads.
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I’m a mom of two daughters and a writer. By day. I call myself the “right-brain representative” at a technical company, where I enjoy writing technical documentation and managing our marketing and communications.
I love writing and founded Fraxtory, which publishes fiction in a medium I created – fractured stories. I also enjoy reading and learning new languages. I’m fluent in Spanish and learning how to speak Portuguese and French.
Quote.
The thing women have to learn about power is that no one gives it to you. You just take it.–Roseanne Barr
What I do well as a mom.
I rely on and trust my instincts. I am also less concerned with what other people think about the parenting decisions I make. This confidence has made it easier for me to say no to requests from others that I don’t think are good for my family.
What I learned from another mom.
My mom taught me that discipline is an act of love. A child counts on a parent to discipline them and provide proper boundaries to make them feel safe. My mom also taught me that to discipline quickly and firmly is more merciful than to drag things out with a lengthy explanation, bargaining, or guilt.
Lesson learned from my child.
I have learned to listen to whining as more than just an aggravating noise. When one of my daughters whines or acts helpless about something I know she can do, it is a call for me to step back and let her figure it out for herself.
Successful motherhood moment.
In 2012, I took my 4-year-old and 7-year-old to a five-star restaurant. There were no other children there. They sat up straight in their dresses from the Christmas before. They ordered for themselves and put their napkins on their laps. They savored their salad, steak, and basil-flavored ice cream.
The three of us watched the tea lights flickering on each other’s faces and shared bites of food. An old man tottered over and complimented them on their behavior. It was a very expensive meal, but it was more valuable than a hundred slapdash chain restaurant meals.
Mom I admire.
My mom. She had a rough childhood, though she doesn’t describe it that way. Some people use an experience like that as an excuse to mistreat others, or to be bitter, grumpy, and out of sorts. But my mom turned the mistreatment and cold-heartedness in her own childhood into love for my sister, our kids and me.
In addition, she has been a great example as an artist, pursuing visual arts through a variety of media for my entire life. She is a talented watercolorist, photographer, illustrator, seamstress, and quilter whose journey through color, composition, and media has certainly influenced my own path in a different field.
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Originally published in Amazing Moms: Parents of the 21st Century Copyright © 2018 Motivational Press. Reprinted with permission.
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Photos courtesy of the author.
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