It’s my birthday today. And I love birthdays! I am not one to shy away and be humble about my birthday, I simply love the celebration and getting older (hopefully a little more wiser) each year 🙂 It’s also our wedding anniversary. We got married on my 30th Birthday! So it’s a double celebration today… woo hoo!

While I love the celebration, and a glass of bubbles (the girls love the cake!), I also find my birthday as a moment to pause and reflect. I think about the year so far, but also about my life and where I’m at. 

This year has been a little different. Not only because of the pandemic sweeping our globe, but also personally with so much going on in our lives. My reflecting has been a little deeper as a result. 

Primarily, I keep coming back to the girls, and what kind of role model I want to be for them. 

The lockdown was an amazing experience for us. For the first time, they really saw me working. They saw me making videos and creating new content. They saw me on calls with clients. They saw me revamping my website. And they helped me in so many ways, including being my model and photographer!! They have a new understanding of me and what my business means to me. They have a new understanding of how I am helping other parents. 

Lockdown also provided us the opportunity to just hang out together. We would have our morning snack together in the sunshine. We would head up and around the park, them on their bikes and me trying desperately to keep up. We would sit and read together, sometimes just side by side with our own books. We learned new skills together, getting the sewing machine out was a huge hit! Our relationships are stronger as a result. 

I saw them doing their school work. I saw them interacting with their class. I saw them concentrating and trying to do their best work. I understand them better as individuals now too.

So what kind of role model do I want to be for the girls?

I think at the moment I am a positive role model for them, without wanting to blow my own trumpet 🙂

I feel like I am demonstrating every day the values that we live by, that we want them to live by:

• The importance of family. 
• The way we communicate with each other. 
• The way we work together as a team, with personal responsibility too.
• The way we all need to support each other through anything that comes our way.
• How we should always give something a go, even if we are unsure or uncomfortable.

I’m not perfect, trust me! I still loose my stuff at them occasionally. But I think it’s important to show that we are all work in progress. That we can all do things differently. That we can all learn from our mistakes. 

So what kind of role model am I? This year I feel I am living my aspiration, I’m a great role model for the girls. 

Have you thought about what sort of role model you want to be for your kids? Please do share in the comments, I would love to hear from you.