In-

-adequate adj. enough for what is required.

I hear a lot of different mom voices. They range from blogs I read, to the women I meet face-to-face at preschool, elementary school, and the grocery store. And I also hear the same words in my own voice now and again. The voice that says "I'm not doing enough for what is required".

As mothers we can perceive ourselves as "inadequate" in our child rearing, our housekeeping, our cooking, the volunteer work we do, our participation at our children's schools, in our jobs and income earning (or lack of). We cut ourselves down because we hold ourselves up to a higher standard.

That higher standard is of our own making. That "I" feel that I should be doing better. MY children should behave better. MY house should be cleaner. MY cooking should feed the hungry. MY income should provide for my family.

When I feel that I am inadequate, I try to look backwards.
Are my kids behaving for their age? yes.
Is my family living in filth? no.
Are my children and my family going hungry? no.
What higher standard am I holding myself too? my own. and I'm proud!
I remind myself that there will always be someone more talented, more beautiful, more energetic, just all around MORE than me and that they feel the same way I do.

When I realize that WE are doing just fine, I take in a sigh of relief and remember that on days that I feel "inadequate" I had to pass over these other definitions that on any given day can describe all of us as we to try to find the word "inadequate" in the dictionary!

inadvertant adj. not attentive or observant

imbecile n. a retarded person mentally equal to a child between three and eithgt years old

idiot n. a retarded person mentally equal or inferior to a child two years old

(all found in Webster's New World Dictionary copyright 1990, inadequate was not listed. try starting in the a's)