When my Motherhood takes a beating

I've worked hard, very hard, at this Mommy thing.  I knew I wanted to be a mother since even before I knew I wanted to be married.  When I was a child, I would watch mothers and take LOTS of mental notes. While in college, I struggled with majors because I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom and I couldn't find a degree (at the college I attended) best suited for the job.  I decided long ago that I would work to be the best mother I could possibly be.  So when I actually became a mother, the one thing I never imagined happening was that my heart would be so tender to all words spoken about my children or about me as a mother.  It took me years to learn how to stand up for myself; to develop confidence in myself as a mother.  For years I struggled with this and it was easy for many seasoned mothers to see this in me and take advantage of my timidity.  I remember the first time a seasoned mother made me cry.  She was my coworker at a preschool and, while I cared for the two year olds, she cared for the babies.  My eldest was in her class and no matter what I said to her, she always knew what was better for him.  If I said to snuggle him a certain way, she would snuggle him an entirely different way, then tell me just how wonderfully it worked and that my way didn't ever work.  This one day, as I struggled with her over something else regarding my sons care, she looked right at me and said, "You don't have a mother, do you?"  My jaw dropped.  Of course I have a mother.  In fact, I have several mothers; well, women who inspire me, helped to raise me, and who love me. I have great women in my life and they each taught me different things about being a wife, mother, housekeeper, chef, financial manager, etc.  She saw my lack of confidence and assumed I didn't have a wonderful role model.  Well, years went by and over the years I grew in my confidence as a mother.  I have stood up to people for my kids.  I have confronted people for my kids.  I have made decisions for my kids and dealt with confrontation from others who don't agree with my decisions.  So lately I've been feeling pretty confident as a mother, not prideful, just confident.  Until recently.  My motherhood took a beating.  Won't go into the details but something was said directly to me that translated disapproval of the way I manage my kids and that hurt.  I found myself having to lift my jaw off the table again.  I felt like that new mom again who lacked confidence and radiated timidity.  I was hurt.  Moving beyond this is so hard.  It's not forgiveness I'm struggling with because I forgive the person who said these things to me.  It's that my heart hurts and that's not an easy thing to mend.  All the nicest things in the world could be said to me today and it still wouldn't mend my wounded heart.  My heart possess a tenderness when it comes to my kids and the smallest jab, intentional or not, is painful.  So what now?  I'm just trying to keep my chin up and keep moving forward.  My Motherhood took a beating but still my kids are joyful, happy, loving, generous, passionate, friendly, smart, helpful kids.  And I sure do love them.