Monday, October 18, 2010

Could There Be a June Cleaver in all of Us?

Barbara Billingsley, best known as Cleaver family matriarch June in Leave it to Beaver, has died at age 94.  June Cleaver became a symbol of the ideals and social threads of an entire generation.  TIME's website said "June Cleaver became shorthand for the idea of the impossibly perfect suburban housewife, and insofar as Billingsley carried out the role impeccably in pearls and heels, unflappable and perfectly coiffed, that was the unattainable ideal the show conveyed."  Unattainable - that's the key word.
We're not expected to be June Cleavers by any means, but we all spend time obsessing about the things that we didn't get to while trying to be the mom that we want to be.  As moms with little ones at home, we have to stand up and be proud of the priorities that we've chosen to focus on.  We get to make the decision about what's important and what isn't.  In my house, doing crafts and coloring pictures has taken priority over a cleared off kitchen table.  Another mom may need the cleared off table to feel that "job well done" feeling. 
What are the things that you're trying to teach your little ones at home?  What priorities would you like them to carry on with them?  I would like my daughter to never feel as if she had to conform... that artwork and music can take over the entire house if that's what makes us happy.  That means I have to give a little on the upkeep of housecleaning.  It's good enough, but it will never be my mom's house.  My mom was as close to June Cleaver as I've seen... house always spotless, dinner always ready, never late for anything.  I'm sure that she had to give up something to make that happen. 
We don't have to be perfect moms... June Cleaver moms.  We only have to be the mom that God has laid us out to be.  We have a perfect God.  That's all the perfection we need to find. 

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