Mary Holliday is the mother of six, grandmother to 12 and great grandmother of six. She would be the first to tell you that motherhood is full of all kinds of unexpected twists and turns, thankless nights of staying up with sick children, carpooling, one minute the children love you, the next minute they are holed up in their room. BUT, she wouldn’t trade her role for anything.

"This has been the most amazing experience,” said Mrs. Holliday. “Watching all of my children grow up and become parents themselves has brought me great joy. I can remember growing up feeling very loved and cared for. I wanted to pass that on to my own children.”

In spite of the fact that her husband was a very busy pediatrician, the family ate dinner together every night at 6:30 p.m. With six children, life was chaotic most of the time, but Mrs. Holliday was intentional about spending one-on-one time with each child as often as she could. In fact, one of her favorite times was picking up the kids from school.

“I learned more on the way home from school than any other time about what was happening in the lives of my children,” said Mrs. Holliday. “By the time we got home and had a snack they, shut up like clams.”

“Faith, family and service were and are clearly the most important things in my mom’s life,” said Sugar Wheeler. “When we were growing up that was never something she told us, she lived it out. She taught all of us how important those three things are in life. Growing up, we all had our challenging moments with our parents. My mom and I had the usual disagreements over things like clothing, music, boyfriends and curfew. I can remember one time coming down dressed to go to an Earth, Wind and Fire concert, and my mom looking at me with that look and then saying, ‘You aren’t going out like that, are you?’ In spite of those moments, my mom always encouraged me to be my own person. While I didn’t necessarily appreciate all the things my mother did while I was growing up, now that I am a mother…..I get it!”

Looking back, Mrs. Holliday believes one of the most meaningful things they did as a family was attend the YMCA family camp.

"We went to family camp for 17 years,” said Mrs. Holliday. “That is where we made our first friends after moving to Chattanooga, and we saw family relationships really meld. The children saw what it was like to build strong family ties and to grow up alongside other families. Everybody played and worshipped together. Pope and I knew we were laying a foundation for future generations.”

Raising six children has not been a piece of cake. Mrs. Holliday can recall difficult times when they had to practice tough love. Even though it was painful and hard, it was important to stand strong for the children.

Today, all six children are grown with children of their own, and Mrs. Holliday is seeing her hard work pay off as she watches them develop as parents.

“I love it when my kids come and ask me for advice,” said Mrs. Holliday. “When they were teenagers, they rarely wanted my opinion on anything. Today, they believe I am pretty smart.”

It isn’t always easy being a mom. Mrs. Holliday shared these words of wisdom for moms who are in the throws of raising children:

Stick to being the parent. I never tried to be my kids’ best friend. Growing up, I respected my parents’ opinion and their follow through. I did the same with my children.

Be honest. In all your dealings with your children and others, make it a point to be truthful.

Do the best you can in every situation. None of us knows all the answers when it comes to parenting. Do the best job you know how to do.

Ask for help. Don’t be too proud to ask for assistance when you need it. That is what we are here for – to help each other.

Hang in there. There will be days when you want to throw in the towel. Hang tough. Things have an amazing way of getting better over time.

As much as possible, let kids make up their own mind about things. So often we think for our children and miss the opportunity to teach them how to gather information and make wise decisions.

Teach your children skills. I was very intentional about teaching my children the skills I knew were necessary for getting along in life. Many children are heading out into the real world today ill prepared for living life to its fullest.

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Source: First Things First