Finding the perfect gift for Mother’s Day this year is almost impossible. One way to honor her on this special day is to recall the best life advice your mom ever gave you.
Have you ever wondered what your mom’s DNA would reveal?
Perhaps immeasurable values such as:
– love
– wisdom
– kindness
– sacrifice
– generosity
– courage
The hallmark traits of Superman, Batman, and every other superhero rolled into one. Qualities shown in moments of crisis where strength of character and superhuman coping skills are needed.
Sadly, there is the misconception that you can quantify the love you feel for your mother.
Let me make my view clear now – a mother’s love is priceless. There is no gift you can ever buy that would be good enough to say thank you for all that your mom did for you in your journey to adulthood.
How do you attach a price tag to:
• Night feeds
• Watching over you at night when you were ill
• Playing games to educate and entertain you
• Tolerating the drama of the teen years
• Working long hours to fund your activities
So to spread the word about the inestimable power of a mother’s love, I asked a few bloggers to honor their moms by sharing the good habits they developed as a result of their mother’s wisdom.
I asked them 3 questions:
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
Table of Contents
15 Bloggers share their Mom’s Best Life Advice
Here are the personal responses of 16 awesome bloggers:
1. Suzi of startamomblog.com
Suzi Whitford is a former Industrial Engineer who left the corporate world to raise her little tribe of children. She has helped over 40,000 moms start and grow their blogs and many of her students are making $2,000 – $10,000 per month with their own blogs.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
The best advice my mom gave me was not her words, but her actions. She ran businesses, turned her hobbies into profitable side hustles and was always giving of her time.
With regards to parenting, my mom told me to get on my child’s level when I talk to them and make eye contact. When I do that, I don’t have to repeat myself multiple times. It works really well!
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
My mom is amazing! She’s patient, kind and insanely smart – but she doesn’t show it. Her people skills are spot on and she’s loving beyond measure. I remember in middle school we would go to the mall almost every day and share smoothies. It was such a lovely time with her!
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
My mom and dad are both entrepreneurs. My mom had wonderful side hustles and my dad started his own company when he was 25 years old. I live through their example and created my own blog and business in 2015.
2. Lily of findingbalance.mom
Lily is bent on teaching moms blogging shortcuts so they can have their own businesses and have time to raise their families as they want.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
S.M.I.L.E.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
I had an unstable childhood where I kept moving and changing homes. All 6 years of high school were spent in different schools where I was typically the youngest in class with no social skills. I become so afraid of engaging and connecting with people.
I can’t recall exactly what happened that day but when I was around 17 or so (and not a single friend!), my mom said to me ‘Oge, smile.’ That single word changed my life.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
Today I smile at any and everyone/thing, I even use the power of genuine smiles in my photos! It has helped me:
• Instantly feel better when I’m having a rough day.
• Become more approachable and confident
• Appear more trustworthy. Good for business!
• Become more productive.
• Become powerful! Knowing how much my smile can change me and the people around me empowers me.
3. Angela of straycurls.com
Angela helps women who are starting their entrepreneurial journey to make it big in the online business world.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
Don’t run away from your problems. You are capable of finding a solution. Believe in yourself and you can do it.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
I was going through a tough time in college. My boyfriend (now husband) had finished his term and we had to maintain a long-distance relationship. I was constantly being picked on in college because of my hair and my looks and the fact I couldn’t speak the local language.
There was also religious pressure on me to conform. I wanted to go back home to Abu Dhabi and just study somewhere else.
But my mum told me to push through it and persevere. She made me realize that running away from my problems was not a solution.
It took me a while to cope but I did and I found my way to happiness again.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
That has helped me through many challenges in my life. When I started my own business and saw no improvement, I wanted to give up.
But my mum gave me the same advice. I pushed through and believed in myself. She was right. My business slowly took off and once it did, there was no turning back.
There is a solution to every single problem. You just have to believe in yourself and persevere.
4. Nataly of lovelymomhood.com
Nataly created this blog to offer moms a place to find resources, tips, and recommendations to help in their motherhood journey.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
Accept the setback gracefully, analyze it, learn from it, and to try again with a new outlook. It is the reason for my success.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
Being the oldest of her six children, I have seen her make her share of mistakes over the years. I have also seen her put her own advice to the test as she reinvents the outcome with an almost always complete turnaround.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I apply her advice almost daily. As a mother, wife, blogger, and entrepreneur, learning from my mistakes and using them to propel me forward has been imperative to my success.
5. Beth of thedgafmom.com
She helps parents who are lost, confused, overwhelmed and not sure what to do next to feel empowered in their parenting choices.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
Don’t let other people’s problems become your problems.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
She’s been telling me this since as long as I can remember but I heeded it when I became a mom and had with issues at a daycare.
In the course of 3 months, my son was bitten six times, four times without the teachers notifying us. I kept giving the daycare the benefit of the doubt. But it was their management problem in and I was letting it become my problem because my child was the victim of it.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I use this advice every single day in my business. I weed out potential clients based on their drama level and how responsive they are to emails and communication. This is a sign to me that they may have a problem paying me on time as well. I don’t want their inability to stay organized to affect my getting paid.
6. Steph of roadtoanywhere.org
She believes that everyone should have a chance to travel to at least one new place somewhere in the world. Whether it be the next city over, the next country over or even a different continent! She started a travel blog to help make your future adventures easier and cheaper.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
We live in a world where there is so much to do and see, that you should never be bored.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
As a child, I would whine about being bored although I had loads of toys and a brother and sister to keep me company.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
Those words struck a chord in me. They inspired me to travel to see as much of the world as possible. I started a travel blog to document the places I visit. I also want to encourage people to explore the world on a low budget. I am currently enjoying my travels in Australia.
7. Nicole of thisisallogoingon.com
She’s a perfectionist at heart but has to fight it every day. She has to remind herself that it’s okay for things to be just good enough – and it’s a lot more fun when things aren’t so serious.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
Spend less time doing housework and more time just hanging out with the kids.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
I remember my mom doing a lot of housework when we were kids. Our home was always tidy, but I think that keeping it that way took a huge toll on my mom’s health. She was working full-time, parenting three children and keeping the house in company – ready condition at all times – was just too much.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I try to use the ‘play more clean less advice’ but when I see my house sinking into disarray while I play board games and go for hikes, it’s hard not to feel anxious.
I try to prioritize tasks: for example, dishes and laundry must get done, but if the beds don’t get made and the floor doesn’t get swept, that’s okay. If I get unexpected visitors, they’ll just have to be okay with an unswept floor, because I’m busy making memories.
8. Tere of preemiemomtips.com
She offers support to parents in their parenting journey especially if they’re parenting a preemie miracle.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
Don’t give up hope.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
I was going through a high-risk pregnancy, and I had a long hospital stay ahead of me. I had doctors drawing blood at least twice a week, I had shots for my baby’s lungs. And almost every day a doctor came in to tell me that the chances that either the baby or myself survived were slim.
My mom never left my side. And during the darkest hour, she said: “Sweetie, you hang in there. It’ll all be worth it. I promise”.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
To this day, whenever my son is being terrible or going through a tantrum, I close my eyes and listen to my mom’s words. Take a deep breath, and smile. Parenting isn’t always easy, and we learn as we go. But it is so worth it!
9. Hilda of realmomhelp.com
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
The best advice that my mom gave me is to not criticize my husband when he does something that I usually do. To let him just get it done.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
She’s been married for almost 30 years and had 5 kids, so she definitely didn’t do it all on her own and I often noticed my dad taking charge of household duties too.
My mom told me that criticizing a guy for doing something that society deems “feminine” will only discourage them to and also make them feel like they aren’t appreciated. Win him over so he feels that you’re on the same team working towards a common goal.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I strive to not criticize but praise and appreciate my husband. He’s a tough army guy who feels that I take him for granted when I criticize him about petty things.
This does not mean that we can’t talk about issues or things that bother us.
Paying attention to not criticize but notice and appreciate my husband is good for my marriage and I’m all for that.
10. Thomas of parentspluskids.com
Parents Plus Kids is a parenting blog to help moms and dads navigate the difficulties of parenthood. Our goal is to give you actionable steps and information to make your journey easier.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
My mom always had this saying “it’s better to be late than the late.”
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
As a teenager, I was always running late to places. She was afraid that I would start speeding so she would always tell me this before I left. Always. Sometimes I think I heard this several times a week.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
While I don’t run as late anywhere near as much as I did as a kid, I think about this a lot. Because I would rather be late to an event than get into an accident and not be able to make it at all.
11. Keyona of professionalmomma.com
This blog, run with best friend Tiana, is the real and unfiltered truth about the balance of being a mother, a professional, and a woman.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
When a baby is refusing the bottle, offer the bottle while the baby is sleeping.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
When my daughter was around 6 months old she got a GI bug from daycare. She was a breastfed baby and only took a bottle at daycare and on the rare occasion, I was away from her. While she was sick I stayed home with her for 3 days. By the fourth day, I had to go back to work, so Dad stayed home instead.
She refused to take the bottle and wouldn’t drink any Pedialyte either. It had been 6 hours since she’d last had milk and I did not want her to get dehydrated. I called my mom and that’s when she gave me that advice. It worked like a charm. My baby was fed and hydrated and my anxiety level significantly decreased.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
My baby is now 19 months so her suck reflex is not as strong anymore. If I face this problem with future babies, I will definitely use this advice again.
12. Mallory of mamaonparade.com
Her goal is to try to help you figure out what would be best for you and your family. To be more specific, she offers tips on pregnancy, babies, breastfeeding and motherhood in general.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
My mother always told me that motherhood is about looking for the brief moments of joy.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
Every day may not be great, but that one baby laugh, or that one moment when you hear, “I love you, Mommy” will make it all worth it.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I’ve really held on to this idea. I’ve battled some postpartum depression and anxiety and looking for those brief moments of joy when I’m having a bad day make everything a little bit better.
13. Marissa of simplemoneymom.com
She is on a mission to help you live simply through mom life tips, systems, and savvy advice. In a nutshell, she is all about simplistic living and financial freedom.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
Never rely on a man’s income (on teaching independence)
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
My father was always in and out of jobs requiring her to work overtime and support the family. They lost 2 homes due to financial instability.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I have always been a pretty independent woman partially because I didn’t want to be forced to work more than I wanted, like my mother. I have a husband but unfortunately, he is also in and out with jobs every 3-5 years.
While he helps me, I can do most anything on my own, even change a tire and the oil in my car. I also support our family and I don’t rely on his income at all. so the fact that I don’t have to worry about losing a home is less stressful.
14. Catherine of soulcaremom.com
Her blog is a place where you can reconnect with and nourish your soul. She hopes that these meditations & musings will inspire more joy in your life
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
My mom is a treasure trove of wisdom, but one piece of advice that has stuck with me is that life is meant to be enjoyed. And in order to enjoy your life, you need to make the decision to enjoy it.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
My mother was a single mom of two girls. As the eldest daughter, I felt an obligation to be responsible and I often felt guilty for asking for anything including going to parties.
So, on a rare occasion, before she dropped me off at a friend’s slumber party, I told her that it probably wasn’t going to be much fun because I felt so much guilt.
My mom turned to me and said, “I want you to go and have a great time. It will be fun, if you decide to have fun.” And if you’re curious, I had a blast!
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
Today, I am a mother of three AMAZING children. So when my children ask me to play, and I am feeling overwhelmed with a seemingly endless list of chores and responsibilities, I draw on my mother’s wisdom and make the decision to enjoy life with my beautiful family.
Life is too short and precious not to enjoy the journey!
Now it is my passion to find more joy on the journey of life and help others to do the same!
15. Beth of madeyousmileback.com
Beth is on a mission to spread happiness, kindness and positivity. Her blog focuses on ways to take care of your mental health so that you can live in joy every day.
1. What is the best advice your mom gave you?
On more than one occasion though out my life when complaining about why challenging times of life were the way they were, my Mom would gently, but say wisely, ‘this too shall pass’.
2. What experience led to her giving you this advice?
My father was diagnosed with bipolar depression. My mom spent over 20 years hiding this fact from her children. She was a devoted wife and honored her vows, ‘for better or for worse’. She stood by my
father on days when it took every part of her being to remain her caring, nurturing self to her children. She believed in her faith and knew ‘this too would pass’ for every daily situation she faced.
3. Do you use this advice today? How and why?
I often quote this mantra, ‘this too will pass’. And each time I say it, I’m reminded that it is my calling to promote positivity, happiness and joy with my blog.