Perception VS Reality

Is what other people perceive of me actually who I am? After reading a new friend’s blog last week I started to think of how I perceive myself and if that is how others see me. Different people see me differently. My friends at school see me as the crazy mom of 4 who wants to be involved with everything, a woman who has an opinion on everything, someone who wants the best for everyone. (Especially my own children) Although most of them never see the frantic worried side of me, this is how I perceive myself also. My reality is I love being a mother and a wife. I love spending time at my children’s school and being involved with everything there. I love running from place to place with my kids. I love being the taxi. I love making dinner and having it on the table when Lane comes home. I love my house being clean even though it may be messy. I am not perfect, nor do I profess to be, but I try hard to make my family the best it can be. I think my friends see this side of me and this is my reality.
Yet I am troubled by the others in my life who really don’t have a clue as to what is happening in my family or in my life. But those people are the there in the front row passing judgment on me and about me. As I write this I now understand these people are not my friends and they truly don’t know me. As my new friend put it they are the “toxic people” in my life. I continue to worry what these people think of me and my children. I am consumed by the judgments they are passing on my family and myself when they do not know why decisions are being made as they are. They are the people who so quickly question why I may do something but don’t know the circumstance surrounding the decision nor do they care enough about me to what to understand either.
So why do I allow them to alter my reality? How do you become strong enough to just walk away from them? Do you tell them or just drift away? These are the questions I have been pondering.