Re: being home all day with kids
[email protected]
In a message dated 8/7/2003 12:18:34 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:
of Religious Education at a Unitarian Universalist Church. One of my jobs is
to provide parenting religious education. Early on, I discovered that the most
important part is a place for parents to talk about those hard days where
you're sure you're screwing up, or you're not liking your kids much, or you're
just tired and scared. All the other stuff is good and useful, but that space
where we confess those things that we fear is ONLY us is vital.
Anne Lamott wrote a book called "Operating Instructions" about being a single
parent of an infant, about the time I was parenting a wee one. My favorite
part of the book is where she says something like "It's not working out. Sam is
going to have to go back."
Because I think every parent has felt like that, but we don't hear about it
often. I LOVED it when Sandra expressed her relief when her daughter started
reading pretty recently. Because this parenting stuff is scary anyway, and
unschooling is an enormous act of faith! Intellectually, we know it works and
it's going to be okay, but sometimes we all get terrified. We also get tired,
impatient, jealous, exasperated, etc., etc. -- just like everyone else. Doesn't
mean we're bad people or bad parents.
So...confess. I bet for every Bad Mommy or Daddy moment you share, there'll
be a dozen people who say "Me too!" and twenty more who can't say it out loud,
but are still relieved that it happened to someone else too.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected] writes:
> phew, I am so relieved to hear some really heart felt and honest discussionAs some of you know, one of the things I do in my life is serve as a Director
> about the hard realities of parenting for 24/7.
of Religious Education at a Unitarian Universalist Church. One of my jobs is
to provide parenting religious education. Early on, I discovered that the most
important part is a place for parents to talk about those hard days where
you're sure you're screwing up, or you're not liking your kids much, or you're
just tired and scared. All the other stuff is good and useful, but that space
where we confess those things that we fear is ONLY us is vital.
Anne Lamott wrote a book called "Operating Instructions" about being a single
parent of an infant, about the time I was parenting a wee one. My favorite
part of the book is where she says something like "It's not working out. Sam is
going to have to go back."
Because I think every parent has felt like that, but we don't hear about it
often. I LOVED it when Sandra expressed her relief when her daughter started
reading pretty recently. Because this parenting stuff is scary anyway, and
unschooling is an enormous act of faith! Intellectually, we know it works and
it's going to be okay, but sometimes we all get terrified. We also get tired,
impatient, jealous, exasperated, etc., etc. -- just like everyone else. Doesn't
mean we're bad people or bad parents.
So...confess. I bet for every Bad Mommy or Daddy moment you share, there'll
be a dozen people who say "Me too!" and twenty more who can't say it out loud,
but are still relieved that it happened to someone else too.
Kathryn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]