“When you’re good to mama, mama is good to you!”

A few weeks ago I went on vacation with a good Mama friend and her family. She kept joking with her husband: “if you’re good to Mama, Mama is good to you!” Now, I’m a complete sucker or musicals, and Chicago is absolutely one of my favorites (alongside Rent, Miss Saigon, Les Mis, Phantom, all the classics). I STILL regret not going to see the original Hamilton cast, but, hey. Lesson learned for the future.

Back to the topic at hand. For my Mama friend, “when you’re good to Mama” meant when her husband changed a diaper, or brought her a glass of wine, or just generally held up his end of the parenting bargain. It was a wonderfully sweet, playful saying, and it made her and I laugh and commiserate over the frequent distractedness of our partners during this vacation.

I think this is where it all started. Thank you, Chicago, and most especially Queen Latifah, for the inspiration.

I got to thinking… What does it really mean to be good to Mama? My husband giving me a backrub, my two and a half year old daughter playing nicely with my seven month old son and not knocking him over with her enthusiastic “cuddles”, my mother-in-law taking my son for a day so I could take a quick work trip… But that’s all other people being good to Mama. What about ME being good to Mama? Because I know when I’m good to Mama, Mama is DEFINITELY good to me.

Good to Mama means taking time each morning for myself to work out, or have a coffee, or reflect on my goals, or set today’s intention.

Good to Mama means listening to inspiring podcasts that make me feel great about who I am AND push me to be better.

Good to Mama means YES, buying that awesome southwestern blue and white slightly oversized sweater that my husband hates because when I look in the mirror I feel like I stepped out of a magazine, and it’s OH SO COZY in the fall weather.

Good to Mama means pursuing a career that I love, and if I can’t do that right now, finding joy in what I’m doing while making plans for how to make a change.

Good to Mama means being authentic with myself. Ooooh, mama, I am so bad at this and yet it is so important.

So here it is. The Good to Mama site. Some of this will be specific advice on how to be good to Mama. Some of it will be things you can use in your own life to be good to Mama. And some of it will be fluff, because let’s be honest – sometimes we just want to look at a fabulous kitchen design or get a recipe for triple chocolate chunk cookies, and THAT’S how we’re good to Mama.