Welcome to our weekly “Spotlight on a Mean Mom”!
Has your child ever said you were mean? It hurts, doesn’t it?
Here’s a little wisdom–what a child defines as mean… a mom defines a little differently.
Mean Moms instill loving boundaries and have a tough outer shell to stay the course.
The Mean Mom’s Guide to Raising Kids will be available March 2015.
I had some help from some very special ladies while working on this book over the summer. Mean moms and marshmallow moms raised their hands to be a part of The Mean Mom Team, a focus group I pulled together on Facebook. (If you’d like to join or want to be interviewed yourself just click on “The Mean Mom Team“. We’d LOVE to have you!)
Today’s spotlight shines on someone I’ve known for a very, very long time. I can’t wait for you to meet her. She’s been a dear friend of mine since we were MUCH YOUNGER and looked way better in a bathing suit.
Would you please say howdy to our Mean Mama — Jenna Martucci!
Hi Jenna! So glad to have you with us today!
Hey Ya’ll! My name is Mean Mom aka. Jenna Martucci and I currently live in Omaha, NE with my three beautifully made kiddos – 12 year old twin sons Alexander and Christopher and 7 year old daughter Addison Grace.
Jenna, why don’t you share with us your most recent “mean mom” decision.
My most recent mean mom decision has had to do with following thru with a commitment that my son Alex has made. He really struggles with emotions of not feeling like he gets to do fun things like ALL his friends do. He is very active but we limit organized activities to two a season which interferes with all the FUN stuff whether it is high school football games that he can’t go to because of baseball practice or school fun activities because of scouts. We don’t let him go to those ‘FUN’ activities because he has made a commitment to whatever activity was already scheduled that evening and he really struggles with us being “mean” because of it. We never let him have any fun RIGHT!
Do you have a little “mean mom” wisdom you can share with us today?
You know you have made the right decision if it makes your kids think you’re the meanest. If we let them do everything they wanted and they were always happy with us we would not be doing our job raising them to be responsible adults. They need to know how to follow thru and be respectful and responsible for themselves and each other. Being “mean” is way harder than being nice, for me anyway, and that can make parenting hard, but in the end it is so worth it. I can already see the responsible, wonderful men my boys are grow up to be and it makes my heart sing!
Jenna, has being a mom changed the way you look at God?
TOTALLY! I look at him way more now from my knees than I ever did before being a mom. Really in all seriousness, being a mom has made me realize more than before that all things happen thru God and with God at our sides and we need Him to carry us thru the parenthood stages.
Being a “mean mom” means putting your husband BEFORE your kids. How do you keep your marriage a priority in the Martucci home?
I think this is always hard with kids, but I stop what I am doing when he comes home from work (if I can do so safely) and I sit in the bedroom with him while he changes clothes so we can share our day. Also, I work from home. So I try really hard to accomplish the list of to do’s and internet surfing (FB checking and email) during the day so that on evenings we are both home, after the kids are in bed we can sit together on the couch watching a show we BOTH LIKE to watch and talk. Those items on the to-do list that I don’t get done have to wait for the next day and no more time is spent on the computer. It is like quitting time at any other job where you leave it at work. I leave it all in the office until morning. It is our time to connect in quiet without distractions.
Jenna, it’s been GREAT to have you here today. Is there anything else that keeps you busy besides your family? How can other moms connect with you?
I am a ministry leader with MOPS Int. as a MOPS Volunteer Staff ministry coach for Military MOPS. Plus, I am a Tastefully Simple consultant and leader helping busy moms with the scary question “Mom what’s for dinner?” for 11 years now and have a business Facebook page www.facebook.com/TastefullySimplewithJenna and website www.tastefullysimple.com/web/jmartucci .
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