Random

My sister once taught me a comeback when I was in my younger years, and it stuck with me: "You don't need to extinguish my flame to make yours glow more brightly."

I find that we, as women, are constantly doing this to each other. Remember as a teenager when you would get together with girlfriends and get dressed up for a night out? You're all trying on different outfits and helping do each other's make-up to look your best. Then, when one of your friends puts on something that maybe looks a little too good, with ulterior motives you tell her, "Um, no, you can't wear that, it doesn't really look good on you," when the truth is it looks GREAT and you only wish you could look that good and you don't want your friend to outshine you so you tell her to take it off.

Herein lies my point.

There are certain things I have learned based on the decisions I have made in life. Despite the fact that home births account for less than 1% of births in the United States, you don't ask a doctor's oppinion on it because you know they will talk it down. Why? Because it makes them feel threatened. When Ashlee's 1st grade teacher found out I was taking her out of public school and starting homeschool, she snidely remarked, "Well, I hope you have a large support network, because you're going to need one!" It's as if she took my decision to homeschool as a personal blow, like I had just told her she wasn't doing her job well enough. Not so! I have much better reasons for homeschooling than that. I've learned that many people feel threatened by homeschoolers, when truth-be-told those same people know that maybe they should be homeschooling themselves. Heaven forbid we shine the light on something (gulp) better than public school and require them to admit that and make the transition to homeschooling. (Yes, I've heard this confession by many-a-mothers.)

We should all learn to be comfortable in the decisions we make, and let others do the same.

I once heard someone say, "If I am up on a pedestal, it's because you put me there." While this is not entirely true (I think we can become prideful if we're not careful) only we can make ourselves feel inadequate against others. I rest my case.