The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers Quotes

“The tricky part about discovering our giftedness is that it may be in an area that feels unexpected.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Friends who love us know that motherhood is about transitioning--and adjusting, constantly, to those changes. We must become masters of change because that is what life demands of us.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“We simply must accept that they are loaned to us for a time and then they are released into adulthood. When we believe this, we feel more joy and contentment in parenting them, we simplify our expectations of ourselves regarding parenting, and we experience a welcome levity in our relationships with them. Inward”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“She felt indispensable and made no apologies. She allowed herself to accept her importance and this is something many of us mothers refuse to do.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Being busy can be a bad habit and a crutch, a way to make yourself feel important and ignore the real questions that trouble you deep inside. But we must change this bad habit because our stubbornness is slowly corroding something deep within us. It is dulling our sensibilities, chipping off the edges of our sensitivity toward others, and it is killing our spirit. The more we avoid quieting ourselves, the colder we become to ourselves. And this is a dangerous place to be. For when we grow insensitive to ourselves, we can become filled with self-contempt, and that is a very painful state.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“I do feel strongly that most modern mothers are exhausted because we do a lot of things we don’t need to do to be good moms, but we do them because we believe they are expected of us.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Solitude smacks frighteningly of abandonment and this feels wholly unacceptable. As a matter of fact, many of us mothers subconsciously craft our days in such a way that we are rarely alone. We do this because deep down we are terrified to settle down for a moment, to reflect on our lives and our feelings. You can recognize us from a mile away. We are the extremely busy ones. The moms who constantly exude frustration because we simply can’t seem to get enough done in a day, even though half of that stuff doesn’t really need to get done. We clean too much. We stay at work too long. We complain that we can’t slow down because too many issues are pressing down on us all at once.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“But solitude allows us time to think more deeply about what we want and why we want it. Ours is the only voice we hear and this is important because all too often, our voices get drowned out. In order to work where we should, to parent the way we feel we should parent, and to be a good friend to others, we must be able to hear our own voices. In solitude, we can use meditation or prayer as an opportunity to explore our deepest thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. No one can influence us in alone time except for us and God. There is the loveliness of solitude.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“We need aloneness because it allows us to step away from the stresses we face and take a look at them from a different perspective. Aloneness almost allows us to get away from our situations and look at them as though we were an outside observer. Many things look different to us when we step back from them a bit. And aloneness helps us figure out what we really want. When we are with our kids, families, or friends, we hear their opinions and feelings constantly.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“The balance is different for each of us. For instance, I can’t live doing a little of many things each day. I am not good at multitasking, because my personality is a bit too intense. I concentrate on one thing at a time. Consequently, I go hard at one project for as long as it takes to finish, and then I watch Monk reruns for several days at a time. When I’m with my kids (who are now grown) I try to keep focused on their needs and enjoy them. When I’m at the office, patients have my full attention and if other things need to be done (errands, chores, etc.) I find someone to help me. In other words, balance for me occurs over a long period of time. At the end of a year, I’ve gotten many things done, but most have been done one at a time.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Here is what I fear even more than her health: I am concerned that she will not know when too much is too much. She won’t recognize the clues that her body or her mental state are giving her. When she gets gradually more agitated at her kids and husband, she will pass it off as hormonal rather than work overload. When she develops irritable bowel problems, migraines, or elevated blood pressure, she will blame herself for not being able to “handle stress” as easily as she used to. The truth is, she may even ignore cues from loved ones that she is burning out because she will be so used to pushing herself that she will be too afraid to listen to them. She will feel that they are wrong in encouraging her to slow down, because the idea will be overwhelming and foreign to her.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Take a hard look at what you fill your days with and find ways to slow down. Find time to be quiet, to hear less noise, and to enjoy your own company.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“If we believe that money is part of life but not the driving force that can make us happy (although it never really does) or make us miserable, if we take bold measures, we’ll see that real contentment never has a price tag.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“The wonderful thing for mothers is that we can train ourselves to have this same sense of contentment. It will never come if we continually look outward at the next thing we want to get. It will only come if we acknowledge that we struggle in appreciating what is in front of us.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“The legacy you pass on to your children is your character, not your stocks or bonds. So dig for the best parts of your character and make them surface again and again. When you do this, you will begin to feel your worth and your children will have the added benefit of learning from you.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Remember one truth about children. They develop by watching, listening, and then internalizing what they see into their beings. This is how they form their identities. This”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Remember one truth about children. They develop by watching, listening, and then internalizing what they see into their beings. This is how they form their identities. This means that every day your child watches you like a hawk looking for prey. Your daughter studies your moods, your decisions, and waits to see how you will behave in certain situations. Your son keeps his eyes and ears open to see if you are honest, courageous, or timid. When he sees something he likes,”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Nothing else compares to success in connecting with a child when it comes to experiencing satisfaction in your parenting.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Those who rely on money alone for security sooner or later find themselves disappointed. So don’t do it.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“But most importantly, we need to remember that whenever we pursue money and material gains there is a cost. When we work very long hours outside our homes (and inside as well, but that doesn’t generate income and that’s what we’re focusing on here) we take something away from our families. Many times we must work so hard and long because we need to put food on the table. Other times we must because we will lose our minds if we don’t have a break from the stresses of home. But we must always be careful to weigh the cost and benefits and feel comfortable that we are striking a balance. This is extremely hard because making money and having a job or career is emotionally complex and can be a large part of a woman’s identity. Still, we must get past this so that we never lose sight of what is lasting and what is fleeting.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Sometimes making money helps us live with the illusion that we really are less dependent than we are.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“When getting things or having things becomes more of a priority than people, we’re in trouble.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Working hard and acquiring nice things wasn’t Gretchen’s problem; having it occupy too much of her mental, physical, and emotional energy was. She had a belief instilled in her when she was young that she needed to be prepared for bad things to happen. To her, that meant that she needed to have financial security. When her belief was coupled with her very intense personality, a fuse was lit. She began working to get more and more security, but earning more didn’t give her that. Otherwise she would have been able to stop. She became obsessive about earning and it cost her and her relationship with her daughter a lot. It stole relaxed, enjoyable time from them.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“most kids would much rather have our time than the stuff and opportunities we kill ourselves in order to provide.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“We tend to lean on all the wrong things to make us feel valuable and while our rational brains tell us this isn’t true, we tell ourselves that our kids will be happier if we buy them more stuff. It’s an emotional, not a rational, choice. So we must focus on reality and what our kids tell us about ourselves, which is that what they really want and need is more of what we do best—talk, encourage, and spend time with them.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“The tricky part in being a mother is that giving is good and it is natural, but we forget to give what really matters to our kids (our time, attention, and affection) and instead spend our energy paying for things for them. We do so because we believe that things matter more to their success than we do. It’s not that our motives are wrong; they are simply guided in the wrong direction—the same direction that all of our friends are headed in. We are stubbornly convinced that providing nicer homes, schools, clothes, tutors, piano lessons, etc., makes us better mothers. This is not a conscious belief; rather it is a strong subconscious feeling that drives many of our parenting behaviors.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Competitive mothers have many things in common and one of the most glaring is an intentional focusing on what they don’t have rather than the great things they do have.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Happy people are fun to be around. If you listen to them for a while—a day or a week—you’ll see that happy people rarely complain. Why? Because they focus more on what’s positive in life rather than on what’s negative. This can be easier or harder for some mothers, depending upon our personality type, life circumstances, or health issues. But each of us can cultivate a more positive attitude. Regardless of who we are, it requires work.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Openly articulating our thoughts and feelings to a good friend about even the tiniest ways in which we compete is the best way I know to head competition off at the pass.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity

“Sometimes jealousy gets such a strong hold on us that we have difficulty having any good relationships with other mothers. We always feel so inadequate or guilty when we are with them that we just scrap the whole friendship thing altogether. That’s when we really need to pull a good friend close to our side and get competition under control. It is insidious and can be profoundly destructive.”
― Meg Meeker, The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity