And I've come to the realization that being smart versus stupid or ugly versus beautiful is a choice. And ultimately, it comes down to the belief that you have in yourself. I have realized that a lot of those learnings came from allowing myself to step outside of my comfort zone and do things that I thought I wasn't capable of doing and just giving it a try
And once you've recognized that in yourselves, then you're just like, oh, when your inner heart, your inner beauty shines through, it shines through on the outside. And I think that's what's happened with us. We may have been whatever. Look, whatever. But we have blossomed. We're on the come up. The world better watch out for us. You're divorced. I'm over here writing. Maybe I might run for political office. I don't know
Jentrey Potter
@Jentrey_Rey · 4:38
And I've taken up salsa and bachata, different latin styles of dancing, to really find my confidence, build up my feeling sexy, feeling attractive, feeling confident, feeling good about myself and not doing it for anyone else, but really doing it for myself. And some people don't understand that, but at the end of the day, I'm not doing it for anyone but myself
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Pritha Lal
@lifecoachPritha · 4:53
Will you make sure that this class is quiet? Will I give you the responsibility? And I am not kidding you. I haven't stopped speaking since, which is probably a scary thing. But jokes apart, it just made me realize at the age of seven that once you empower someone, doesn't matter how big or small, whether you're parenting or you're supervising or you are, whatever it is in life that you're doing, you just give that control to that person to be themselves
Jentrey Potter
@Jentrey_Rey · 2:49
And so I don't know what I weigh now. I don't even have a scale, but I would guess I'm probably around 131 35. So healthy weight, but I have my folds and my curves and I'm perfectly comfortable with that. And then what was the third one? It was testing. It was weight. Oh, there was something else in there. I wish I could remember what it was. Anyways, thank you so much. I loved your reply
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:21
So hop to it, y'all. Teach the children, right? Teach the children. I very much am very cognizant of trying to emphasize to my son, as a black mother of a black boy, I understand the world that he's going to go into as a black man, aka black king. And helping him to learn not just what mommy and daddy say about you is important, but asking him from this age, do you feel proud of yourself? What did you like today?
Jentrey Potter
@Jentrey_Rey · 2:39
So thank you again for your response, and God bless. Wish you all the best with your young son. I'm sure he's going to be a fantastic human being from the sound of the good mother that you sound to be. But also give yourself the grace that we have our bad days and it's never perfect, and it changes with the phases and stages, as I'm sure you know, and you'll come to learn, and it's a learning curve
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:40
Hey, Jentrey, thank you for sharing this reflection and this journey that you've been on for discovery and for personal affirmations. And, you know, we look at life in milestones, and you covered so many of them that could be measured, but so many people have achievements that are hard to spot until someone asks them about themselves. And I feel like you did that for yourself, and that's amazing
Jentrey Potter
@Jentrey_Rey · 2:40
I mean, it can come from all different places and discovering just who we are in the middle of all of those beliefs and systems that we have accepted as truth, whether or not we really align with it
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:30
Too much. What would you say has been the hardest lesson you've learned through parenting all five of your children? And when you said your daughter has taught you so much about yourself, I guess what has been the most significant lessons or learnings or wisdom that you've learned from your children about yourself? I would be curious to know about that. So far
Yes, we need a swell prompt for moms to vent about how much they love their kids, but how much they would drown them in the moment if they didn't have the strength to carry on
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 1:59
Because at the end of the day, if I feel like I'm the only parent or the only mom in the room who's like, this is a life of garbage, I would want someone to then be like, facts. So what I did when dealing, and we go into that solution oriented mind space, but only because we have the safety to share our woes
And I know you're supposed to brag about your kids, but it's very irritating to me because I fancy myself as a kind of humorous person. And I'm here to tell you that I have a three year old that if she makes it to adulthood, if she doesn't succumb to, I don't know, she's a wild child. She's like
Jentrey Potter
@Jentrey_Rey · 0:22
It. Oh, my God. I'm trying to listen, but I can't get past the pause and then the but. Do I want to drop them off a cliff? Yes. Every parent has said that. And if they haven't, there's something really wrong there. That is so hilarious. I love it. And I just had to respond to that. I'm coming back to listen, okay?
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:12
You. Thank you for sharing more about your girls. That does sound like a really interesting dichotomy of children to be raising. And as for your question, around a second, I believe that the answer should be yes. I just struggle with that just because I think that they are a lot and it's a lot. I imagine that will happen, but it's just a lot
The theory was that once you hit the age of seven, you are fully formed as far as, like, the base, the foundation of who you are going to be for the rest of your life is locked in and the cement is dry and set at the age of seven. And then it's when you start going to school and you build on that foundation, and then that's who the person becomes. And it's started. It's locked in at the age of seven
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:17
I think ideally, if you can have siblings between the ages of two to four years apart, I think that that's better generally because just it's easier to relate and I hear you on kind of identity formation and where you don't want to wait to the point where it's too big. Because I do have siblings. I have three brothers, and my youngest brother is ten years older than me. And, yeah, I don't have great connections with any of my siblings
