On Mothering, Part 2

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A week ago I implemented a change in my life--in my mothering.  Here's an update.

Julie Beck equated mothers to lionesses at the gate--and what's important to the lioness becomes important to the family.

I thought about this for a long time. Are my priorities being transferred to my kids?  Do they know what's important to me by how and where I spend my time?

Since being asked in July to teach an Institute class every Thursday morning, I've spent an average of four hours a day studying, thinking, writing, formatting, and posting.  It's so time-consuming but so rewarding.  The one benefit I've noticed from all my time spent hitting the books is this:  Every day when my little ones come home from school, I'm already sitting at the big desk in the library, elbow-deep in dictionaries, six marking pencils, two ball-point pens (pilot extra fine), a .5 mm mechanical pencil, reference books, scriptures, manuals, and eight different sizes of sticky notes (not lying about that--I take my sticky notes VERY seriously).  They pull up their chairs, open their backpacks, and we all study together.  I'm not helping them any more than I used to--which is minimal.  I believe it's their homework, and my only job is to make sure they do it and answer a question if they have one.  It's their job to do it and the teacher's job to teach it.

How has this made a difference?  Homework time still takes as long (or longer) than it ever did before. They still complain sometimes.  But not only are we together, they know that I practice what I preach--if you put in the time, you can be proud of your results.

I'm still working on the schedule--ironing out the bugs and making it more functional and accurate.  I'm still making dozens of mistakes a week as Mom.  But it's nice to see that one thing is sinking in.


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