The 5 Words that Changed my Life: My Story of Pulling my Family out of Utter Chaos

You know that experience of an aha moment. Where you suddenly get clarity.

It happened in the middle of a time of utter chaos in my life.

I always knew I wanted to be a mother.  Not only that – I wanted a BIG family with a house full of kids.  But even though I had great ambition and a desire to build a family on the basis of love and positivity, I quickly found out that I was in over my head.  

Raising kids is a TON of work!   So there I was with my 4 little kids, who were like little monsters running in every direction, wreaking havoc, making messes, and yours truly running after them to clean up the trail.

You know how sometimes you see one of those parents whose kids are running all over, completely ignoring anything they ever say, being disrespectful, the parent who has to go running trying to catch their kid at the park…..

You know what I mean?

I know….

Because I was that parent.

I was exactly that parent. I had always pictured myself as this all loving, only positive, never raising my voice, totally tuned in with every child’s needs type of mother. But I had no idea how much energy it actually takes.

No clue.

And I have to admit, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I could just be positive and all loving, which is what I set out to do from the start and that, of course, naturally everything would just fall into place.

But as they grew, and I had two and then three and four kids, they just walked all over me. They were like a little gang running around giggling and making messes, and the joke was always on me (and the mess too).

But that’s not the worst part.

THE WORST PART WAS ME.

I became this frustrated, snapping at the kids, yelling all the time, seriously overwhelmed mother.

My worst nightmare come true. To say that my life was chaotic is a major understatement. It seemed that my dream of a beautiful, positive loving family was falling apart, and I had no idea how to regain control of my life...

That’s just when I happened to be outside one day on the front lawn with my kids. My next door neighbor of course had to witness my 6-year-old do the exact opposite of what I’d asked and run off in the other direction, leaving me to chase after him with a baby and two toddlers in tow.  Now, I respected this neighbor A LOT, so it was more than slightly embarrassing to have her witness my less than perfect kids.(!!!)  

I mean, her kids were nothing like mine. They were a bit older, yes, it’s true, but they were incredibly respectful, thoughtful, and seemed to have an amazing relationship with their parents.  In short – she had everything I wanted.

So, I threw up my hands and looked at her, beckoning for some advice.

“What now?  What should I do?”

She smiled that empathetic, sweet smile and shot back: “I don’t know, but you have to do something. Don’t do nothing.”

So simple yet so powerful.

DO SOMETHING. DON’T DO NOTHING.

That was the answer. I had no idea what to do so I did nothing. And when I did nothing... nothing changed. That’s when it hit me:

I am the only person with the power to change this situation.

So I did.

I went out and bought all the parenting books I could get my hands on and devoured them. I took parenting class after parenting class. And I practiced everything I learned; reviewing the course material and filling notebooks with all the knowledge that I could.  

I even started calling up other moms that I knew and respected to ask them for their top tips and tricks for dealing with certain situations. I’ve spoken to hundreds of mothers over the years, many of whom were also therapists, psychologists, and doctors.

I was a woman on a MISSION!

I was going to get the tools I needed. Learn the secrets of the trade. I’ll be honest, it took me years to see the light at the end of the tunnel – and it was a TON of work – that involved a lot of research and experimentation for everything to click into a perfect science.

But it was worth every bit of effort. Because now – I LOVE MY FAMILY. 

Ultimately, I also learned that in order to be an amazing mother for my kids, I needed to love myself and that meant I had to become that healthy, happy, and wholesome person that I wanted my kids to grow up to be.  

So, I took control of my life. I started exercising, taking self-development classes, I became a certified alternative practitioner, meditating on the beach, and taking fun nature trips with my friends.  

My kids had a new mom and it translated directly into our life together at home. I’m now the proud mother of 8 loving kids and I couldn’t be happier.  

Sometimes you get that aha moment in life. The question is – what do you do with it? Do you let it just pass you by?

NO!

Let it impact you with full strength and then run with it.  You can make your life into anything you want it to be. Just grab onto those moments and go for it.

P.S. All those years of research? So, my friends started urging me – “Lisa you’ve got to share this. It’s a goldmine for other parents.  There’s so many moms and dads out there going through the same struggles you went through.  You could change lives with this stuff!  You’ve just got to share it!”

And with that, Chaos to Connection was born.  This course is the culmination of 17 years of research and parenting experience. It’s jam packed with all the parenting tools that helped me to become the confident, patient, positive parent that I wanted to be all along.