Dear Parents: You’re #DoinGood.

Huge thanks to Minute Maid for sponsoring my participation in this campaign including this blog post. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have to say, I have never been more excited about a campaign. When Minute Maid reached out to me and asked me to be one of the blogger ambassadors for the #doingood campaign, I was humbled at the least. In my blogging career so far, I have not been approached with such a well fitting opportunity. This is truly an honor to share with you.

What is #doingood all about?

This campaign has a mission to encourage parents that regardless of our struggles and the chaotic nature of our responsibilities, we are actually doing a good job. See what I mean? Could there BE a better campaign for me to be a part of? I have long thought that the parenting community could be stronger and more supportive. I have used my platform to encourage mothers to be the village for each other. I am thrilled that such a large brand is promoting such an important message.

To kick off blogger participation, Minute Maid planned a round table discussion, over breakfast, to brainstorm how we could help make this campaign a movement. Four other Mom Bloggers from around the country and I gathered at Coca-Cola Headquarters in downtown Atlanta for this event.

As a very special treat, the spokesperson for the #doingood campaign, 5-time Olympic Gold Medalist, Missy Franklin would be there with her parents to join in our discussion. You may have seen this commercial, where Missy staged a press conference with the true intention of surprising her parents with a letter she wrote to them. If you haven’t seen it, get the tissues and take a look.

Let me start by saying that I am not sure I have ever met a more beautifully genuine family. Not only does Missy exude tremendous light and love, but the family dynamic between the three of them is awe inspiring. We were immediately comfortable in our round table setting, and began to talk about the campaign’s mission and how we could implement it into our own lives.

One of the reps from Minute Maid led with a statistic that was something along the lines of, “Parents of this generation actually spend MORE time with their kids than previous generations did simply because we are so much more hyper-aware of the deficit.” Interesting, eh? We are doing better than we thought, already!

After we all got acquainted, we began to talk about why this campaign is necessary. Why do we need to go out of our way to encourage parents that they are doing a good job? It was an easy answer. As my fellow bloggers and I shared story after story of the struggles of motherhood through tears, it was evident that the message of this campaign was huge and could make a massive impact on any parent.

Missy’s parents encouraged us that they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to raise “an Olympian”. There were a few key things they said that really resonated with me. One, was that having become parents later in life, their egos were smaller and they were much more relaxed. Missy’s dad, Dick, reiterated several times that parents “don’t have to be experts on everything.” It’s so true. We get so obsessed with the control and trying to make sure our kids become something great that we drive ourselves nuts. It was refreshing to be reminded by other parents that we can’t control everything. Beating ourselves up by putting all of the responsibility on our parenting tactics is a downward spiral. Perhaps the hands-off approach isn’t as scary as we think.

Missy told us that her parents let her make many of her own decisions. She encouraged us to trust in our kids and how well they know themselves. She credits her parents immensely for letting her make her own mistakes and helping her learn by letting her fall.

All of the parents in the room, including the Franklins, continued to share stories and anecdotes. We cried a lot, laughed a lot and related a lot. This gathering was more than a campaign brief; it was collaboration of people who are honest about the messy part of parenting and passionate about empowering our fellow parents that at the end of the day, they really are #doingood.

So, how do we initiate growth of this movement? It’s easy, guys!

• Text another mom (or dad), right now, and tell them they are doin’ good.
• Take it a step further and surprise them with a gift card to their favorite coffee shop.
• Tell a stranger in the checkout line that she’s doin’ good. Sometimes, that’s enough to get us above water, even for a short time.

What are your ideas? How will you recognize a great parent in your life? We want to hear from you! Celebrate a parent in your life by reminding them they are #doingood on social media with @MinuteMaid on Twitter or Facebook and @MinuteMaid_US on Instagram.

 

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