Stop it!

So I was perusing around some facebook photos and comments from several different posts and asked the simple question. Am I the kind of mother that I really want to be?
My mother, her ears are probably burning knowing that I'm talking about her right now as I write this, was very fun and resourceful in hers and my younger years. She used to bake, cook, clean, sew, take us to the park, weed the garden and flower beds, do laundry, makes us waffles and cream of wheat and homemade cinnamon buns yum. She was also quick with the wooden spoon and had a killer glare.
It wasn't until later in life that I missed all of these things because my mom got a job. I remember thinking how cool it was at first. We finally get store bought milk and bread and stuff we never got before because it was always homemade. It was exciting and fun, at first.
As time rolled on and I grew up to my mid teens I really honestly missed my mother. I missed coming home from school and seeing her in her chair fixing a button or reading a book. I missed the smell of fresh bread baking and the big Saturday breakfast. It took me until then to really appreciate everything she had done in my younger years to the extent that it should have been so thankyou Mom seriously from the bottom of my heart for all those things you did and how hard you worked in the home it was not unnoticed by me.
Now back to the question. Am I the kind of mother that I want to be?
Well the answer is no. I think I try real hard and I'm not perfect and I am DEFINITELY hard on myself. But the answer is still no. I can do better. I can have a cleaner home, better planned meals, and more quality time with my kids. I can do it all. I know I can. But then I start to look around and think of all the things I'm doing wrong, since I'm a challenge to myself, and all that ends up happening is frustration and disappointment. I feel utterly overwhelmed at my life. And what's worse if I do something that bothers me then I have to either live with it and move on or work and work at something that I just can't be good at.
The truth is I would like to be just my mother was when I was little. I want to teach my daughter to bake and sew as well as throw a mean curve ball and shoot hoops. I want to teach my son to open doors for girls and respect women as well as how to bend that ball between the goal posts. But quite frankly I never seem to have the time. So what's keeping me from being the mom I want to be?
The world. Or at least my view of it. My kids don't even know that I spend more time living up to societies standards of what a parent should be than my own. They don't even know that they've been missing out. How often do we get consumed with emails, text messages, phone calls, parent teacher meetings, our favorite tv show, and the list goes on? I want to say to the world GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! You heard me!
What's worse, now that I'm making a real effort to spend time with them, it's too late. I mean I've always done lots of fun things with the kids we've definitely had our moments. But not enough of them. My daughter has no interest in learning how to cook when I have the time to teach her but has all the time in the world when I'm consumed with something or other that I have to take care of. Don't get me wrong life happens and it isn't perfect. But I think it's time to get back to tradition. Mom's if you can please stay home. It means the world to your children when they grow up and realize you were always there for them and they will have a desire to be home and raise their children too. They will remember the time you taught them to ride a bike, swing on a swing by themselves, how to bake a loaf of bread.
It's like the old saying goes, give a man a fish he's full for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll never hunger again. Let's teach and do all the things to and with our children now so they have the memories we enjoyed for themselves. And in the process we get to relive our own. Maybe that's the true fountain of youth. Reliving your youth with the youth you've created.