![\"\"](\"http:\/\/amyreesanderson.tipsforsurvivinglife.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/flynn.png\")
<\/p>\nI was reading unopened emails in my inbox when I came across one from my daughter-in-law Alexis where she had written a guest blog post for me to be able to use on a day I was busy and needed help. Given that she’d sent the unopened email to me clear back on June 6th and I was just now opening it was a pretty good indication that I needed help… Here’s Alexis’ message (for context she was nine months pregnant still when she sent this):<\/p>\n
Question Your Way Of Thinking (guest blog post written by Amy’s daughter-in-law Alexis Anderson)<\/p>\n
As I was finishing getting ready this morning, I suddenly heard an ear piercing scream from the kitchen and my little boy yelling \u201cMom!\u201d He had just been in my room watching his Netflix show 5 minutes ago so I couldn\u2019t help but wonder what on earth he could possibly have done this time. I walked into our kitchen to see him sitting on the kitchen table COVERED in salt. Him and the table. I didn\u2019t get angry. I didn\u2019t yell or get after him (of which I am extremely proud of). Instead, I grabbed the broom and vacuum and started cleaning up the mess he had just made.<\/p>\n
While I was sweeping– and not even sure if I was getting any of it off our beautiful white\/gray floors, since every step I could feel more on my feet– I found myself thinking about having our next baby and the thought passed through my mind: this is why they say, \u201cdon\u2019t have kids.\u201d I then found myself thinking, \u201cthis is why I shouldn\u2019t have left salt on the table.\u201d It changed my perspective on the entire situation, and I was able to redirect my frustrations from Flynn to myself. I then found myself thinking about how this very phrase keeps people from having kids. Having kids teaches you to change your perspective and become more of a person, not less. As I\u2019ve raised Flynn with my husband, I am grateful for the chance I have to be a mom. Even though it is absolutely crazy sometimes! There is beauty to be found everyday, and I will make the sacrifice 4 more times (5 I guess including this pregnancy), right Dalton? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
The lesson I learned today was profound for me. Children force us to constantly question our own way of thinking. They teach us to turn outward instead of inward. Although I could\u2019ve done without the salt, sometimes a bit of a mess is what we need to broaden our perspectives.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the picture of our little salt monster in the mess he made:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
—Thanks Alexis for sharing that story!<\/p>\n
~Amy Rees Anderson (my new book \u201cWhat Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life<\/a>\u201d is available on\u00a0Amazon<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was reading unopened emails in my inbox when I came across one from my daughter-in-law Alexis where she had written a guest blog post for me to be able to use on a day I was busy and needed help. Given that she’d sent the unopened email to me clear back on June 6th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21429,6867,395,697,21428,21426,21433,21421,21422,179,21423,13952,12491,9669,13779,21425,21430,21431,415,134,21420,1096,2584,1625,21424,16781,21427,21432],"class_list":["post-11338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-a-seemingly-thankless-job","tag-alexis","tag-amy-rees-anderson","tag-anger","tag-become-more-of-a-person","tag-being-a-parent","tag-broaden-your-perspective","tag-change-your-outlook","tag-change-your-way-of-thinking","tag-dalton","tag-dont-have-children","tag-flynn","tag-grandbaby","tag-grandchild","tag-guest-post","tag-have-children","tag-lifes-biggest-blessing","tag-little-monster","tag-motherhood","tag-perspective","tag-question-your-way-of-thinking","tag-sacrifice","tag-selfish","tag-selfless","tag-the-joy-of-children","tag-the-joy-of-parenthood","tag-what-children-teach-us","tag-worth-the-sacrifice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11338"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11341,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338\/revisions\/11341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyreesanderson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}