What kind of mom am I?

Purple Mom?
Chartreuse Mom?

I read a post the other day about being accepting of other moms. Stark.raving.mad.mommy hit the nail on the head and repeated something my friend has been telling me from the moment her daughter was born and we started comparing Mommy notes - you do what works for your family.

J and I could not be more different, but when you have as much history as we have, it doesn't matter. We love each other's quirks and pluses, and somehow, that's what makes our friendship strong.

I gave up trying to nurse my (unknown at the time) tongue-tied son after two hellish weeks of sleeplessness and three bouts of mastitis. I didn't even try with my second. She is still nursing her 15-month old (who is little and needs calories).

I thought cloth diapers went out of style in the 50's. J's daughter is the model green baby. She has tons of adorable diaper covers that make me a little jealous. Target's polka dots don't hold a candle to her collection.

I thought I would make some homemade baby food from what we grew in our garden. After trying both my two on jar food, neither one would take to the texture of my home-pureed veggies. I shared my knowledge with J, and she quickly learned what to try with her little one first.

She has started making bows and all kinds of girlie stuff and is almost making a business out of it. I can't remember to blog every day.

I have other mom friends who avoid sugar for their kids at all costs. Mine had 2 bowls of Fruit Loops for breakfast yesterday.

Three different friends buy organic milk. One switched after her husband made her watch a PBS documentary or something about a dairy farm. I don't want to drop that much money on 2 to 3 gallons of milk a week. I think the grocery budget might start smoking.

I am a little jealous of all of their convictions. I am slowly switching us over to healthier and more homemade food. Hubby thinks it should be strictly for cost reasons, as he watches my grocery budget like a hawk, but I would like to ensure that I know exactly what my kids are eating. And I do enjoy baking. And SOME cooking... I am coming around, I suppose.

He says we ate fill in the blank and we turned out fine. I say we're still young and don't know the long-term effects of whatever polysyllabic mumbo jumbo is in processed food. I say we should be smarter than generations that came before us. He agrees, but in a different way. He thinks I've been rubbing elbows with too many hippies and seen too many TV reports on childhood obesity. Maybe. But they're fun hippies.

We shall agree to disagree.

Well not really. I'm gonna keep trying to wear him down. I figure it may only take the next 50 years, but by then he won't be able to hear me anyway, so will it be victory or stalemate?

But the real question I have is, what kind of mom am I? My children are old enough that I don't feel like everyday is purely about survival. (But of course, there are always THOSE days...) So I can stop and think and put more effort towards certain things. I feel like I came more into my true self once I had two kids and "kinda" knew what I was doing. So I get the general mom-ness, but where to go from here?

All I know is that I have one loaf of store bought bread left, so the bread maker is coming back out tomorrow. I grab whole grain everything, especially when it's on sale, and slowly want to wean the kids off their daily sugary cereal habits. Since they would eat three or more bowls daily if I'd let them, that ought to make Hubby's budget happier.

But the moral of the story is, it doesn't matter if I'm a green, purple or brown mom. I love my children, and they will (come heck or high water) grow and mature and become amazing adults - because of and in spite of whatever choices I make as their mom.

Maybe then they can tell me what kind of mom I am.

What kind of mom are you?