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In a message dated 7/23/04 10:30:29 AM, ikonstitcher@... writes:

<< "the most boring topic ever
rehashed on every damned email list I've been on" >>


But Nancy, for some people it's their first round.

Everybody has the same first set of first question, and eventually this one
comes up, because unschoolers are criticized by or accused of the sins of
Taking Children Seriously proponents.

I'll tell you something else that bugs me about it, but I'll tell a parallel
story first:

Mothering Magazine. Used to read it lots. Changed my life. Also pissed me
off.

"Are you a Mothering mother?" Yeah. Like those who find any fault with that
magazine aren't mothering their children.

And so a 'movement' calling itself "taking children seriously" suggests
pretty clearly that otherwise children aren't being taken seriously. And that's
irritating, especially when they won't even TALK about children.

I think this about my children and my husband and my mother and my dog: In
MY life, they are mine. In stories about me growing up, I had one mother, one
father. I can tell stories about them without asking permission because I
can't tell the story of my life without mentioning them.

I wouldn't be a mother if I had no kids (18 years next Thursday), and so I
can't talk about being a mother without discussing my children. They are a part
of my life.

When people ask me for marital help (and they do, and have for as long as I
can remember), it matters that I've been married twice, that Keith and I get
along really well, that we've been through some of the same kinds of
frustrations and worked through them. That matters to the people who are asking me, and
it matters to me as an advisor.

Sandra