Jenny Rodriguez, CEO/Founder IVOREEZ shares her perspective of how Music has made a prolific impact in her business, family and personal life. This Mother, Wife, Teacher, Musician, CEO and Innovator encourages business leaders to make creativity, expression and passion a part of your company vision and your everyday life. Her company, IVOREEZ is revolutionizing the way people create music on the piano by giving them the ability to play in 60 seconds. All of this and Jenny Rodriquez is the mother of 7 kids too! What is her secret super power? Well, she shares it with us here and I bet you have this super power too!
The Day And Life Of A Mom With 7 Kids
The buzz that resonates throughout the neighborhood, undoubtedly comes from my home. From the outside, it’s a simple middle class home in suburban San Diego complete with cars (and grass, a San Diego luxury). Inside, has the bustling of midtown train station.
College kids grabbing their keys and bag as they shuffle out the door, Teens chatting about the latest concert and the week-long preparations, an adult turning down solicitors on the phone (politely), middle school kid dancing in the corner with her ear buds on, making squeaky gym floor noises and black shoe marks on the floor, children stuffing Legos into the sound hole of a guitar and giggling with each insert. One large lab/pit bull barking as the UPS man drops off a package adds to the noise when all of a sudden, the laughter of two precarious children turn into screams. For just 4 seconds, everything is dead silent. Someone screams, “What’s going on?”
The person closest to the panic moves in to assess the situation and check for blood. They scream back to everyone still frozen, “It’s ok. The spider in the guitar sound hole was just fed up with their antics.” In an instant, the home goes back to a steady buzz.
This is just 10 minutes into the day and life of a Mom with 7 kids. To chronicle the madness that goes on in an entire day would be like stuffing the sun in a box.
Love Goes Into Each Task
Yes, you can imagine the chaos all moms experience. It’s the very same chaos, just times 7. I’m sure you don’t want to know how we accomplish 11 loads of laundry a week, washing dishes that would compare to any Thanksgiving meal, and coordinating pickups, playgroups, carpools, take out, doctor appointments and PTA meetings that would rival the duties of an air traffic controller.
You probably don’t want to know what we spend on music lessons, field hockey and tutoring, or the amount of toilet paper we go through each week (girls use much more than boys. Think about it) and that every trip to McDonald’s is a $55 event.
It’s hard to capture the way girl fight versus boys (Frankly, I prefer silent punches versus days of bickering and grudge holding), or every decision affects the entire family or how quickly and efficiently we speak, eat and move. Silence, order and food are “treasures” in this home.
You can’t capture the madness.
Instead, I wanted to write about the love that goes into each task; that goes into each person. Moms can’t separate the love from the task. It’s a higher level of love.
C.S. Lewis wrote about this love in the 50’s. He states that there are four kinds of love: 1. Storge : based on fondness or familiarity. Like the love we have for our classmates or people unified for a cause. 2. Philia: this is a brotherly love like one would experience in the military or in girl Scouts /Sorority 3. Eros: romantic love. 4. Agape: This is known as the ultimate and unconditional love. Love given regardless of return. It’s a God-like love and is true charity (Latin word “caritas” is love).
Mom’s Super Power
This agape love is the Mommy Super Power. It can’t be earned, bought or replicated. It has to be felt from within and is the purest of gifts.
Many a times, I’ve debating whether my son is deserving of my leniency when blatantly he ignored my instructions (3 times) to take the trash out. The debate goes, “But, he’s so tired. He needs a little help” to “Reminding someone 3 times is more than enough help. He’s not a baby” to “He is a baby. He’s my baby” to “Your baby is a sophomore in college.”
Agape is showing love, even when one is un-deserving.
So, whether it’s one or seven kids, being a mom is never ending love. It’s immeasurable and graciously given as an investment to the child you see right now, the child as they grow up and to the child that is grown. Make every moment an exercise in strengthening that super power.
What super powers did you find out that you had when you became a mommy?
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