You Don’t Need Someone Keeping Score of your Mothering
Advice from Bluey’s Chilli Heeler
I can’t be the only one who feels that someone is keeping an imaginary scorecard of her mothering. Maybe it’s my mother. Maybe it’s another mommy friend. It could be that mom on the pool deck who has multiple kids and reminds me every time we chat that she did x,y,z while pregnant, nursing a baby, and having toddlers. Or it could simply be me. I am guilty of measuring myself against every one else and thinking they are doing this whole mothering thing better than me.
One of our favorite family cartoons is Bluey, a show depicting family life by Australian heeler dogs. With four kids ages 5–14, it’s something the entire family enjoys. We giggle with hilarity over the granny episodes. We see our family portrayed by Bandit and Chilli Heeler and their children Bluey and Bingo. And sometimes we wish we were just as cool as the Heelers.
Many episodes resonate with me, but especially the episode where six year old Bluey is playacting as a mother. In this episode she hands her mother a scorecard and asks her to grade her parenting. Chilli’s provides the best response to the scorecard and motherhood: “You don’t need someone keeping score of your mothering.”
