Leading Your Children

Most moms don’t think of themselves as leaders of anything except maybe the cleanup crew, but they are. In fact, I put them right up there with presidents, governors, and other VIPs. Moms with husbands have more support than single moms, but whatever their personal situation may be, moms are still in one of the most important leadership roles ever invented: motherhood.

We choose leaders based on certain qualifications—education, job experience, character, and lots more—but what about mothers? We can’t go to the polls and vote for the mom of our choice. Someone once said we can choose our friends, but not our family. I lucked out and had a great mom, but not everyone does.

The type of mother we have will influence the mother we become, but it isn’t the deciding factor in whether we succeed or fail at guiding our children from childhood to independence. Some women become great mothers without the benefit of growing up in a home with a role model like the one I had. If we value the job (and motherhood is work) we will work hard to develop the appropriate leadership skills.

I don’t claim to know everything about motherhood (does anyone?) but as the mom of five and a teacher of teenagers, I have a pretty good idea of what constitutes the “right stuff,” and one of the top requirements is good moral character. No matter how hard we try to be good moms, if we aren’t women of character, our children grow up without a compass to guide them.

Think about it for a moment. If you made a list of great leaders who made a positive and memorable impression on society, wouldn’t they be men and women of character? Now think about leaders who made the newspapers because of lack of character. What effect do you think their actions will have on their children?

Strong leadership skills are essential when it comes to raising children and character counts the most, especially when it comes to motherhood.