On Being a Mom – An Exhausting & Rewarding Full Time Job

In perusing the sites of some of my blogger friends I ran across an article that struck a nerve and I wanted to share it with you.  My favorite part of her article is how she describes the many roles of a mother.  Check out this excerpt from Life As A WAHM:

To be a good mom it’s necessary to refine yourself, since a good mom is not just a jealous nurse, but also a strict teacher, tender doctor, responsive psychologist, sensible adviser and simply the best friend. Generally, being a mother is a great everyday work that requires lots of efforts along with a strong wish to do her best for her loved child.

Every mom goes hand in hand with her child through every stage of her child development, while getting a certain experience. These stages are determined by the age of children. Thus, we can conventionally specify babies, toddlers, preschoolers, grade schoolers, teenagers and high schoolers. Every certain stage of child development has its peculiarities as well as difficulties and requires a special approach along with the attention on the part of parents.

– See more at: http://iamfe.com/2014/10/main-principles-for-the-loving-moms-with-school-age-kids/#sthash.P27asxy1.dpuf

Not unlike many other mothers I was not prepared in the least for what was to come.  My brother actually thought I would not be cut out for raising children when he saw the look on my face when my first baby was born.  What he didn’t understand was the underlying sense of being completely overwhelmed.  Now I was almost solely responsible for the survival and well being of a helpless human being.  The first few nights were almost more than I could take. Exhausted and sore I couldn’t get my little Cookie to eat.  She was too hungry to calm down enough to latch on and I didn’t know what the heck I was doing.  Thankfully the nurses in the hospital helped us both calm down and do what we needed to do.

Here we are almost 9 years and one more kid later.  I have two beautiful, healthy, well-behaved and super sweet little girls.  This year is a little weird because BonBon is in kindergarten and we are homeschooling part time.  The initial intention was to sign the girls up for a few classes at the local school that are no fun alone.  They offer “specials” – gym, library and music – at the same time every day on a 3 day rotating schedule.  We also wanted them to participate with the kids in recess.  This created a logistical problem because there was an hour in between specials and recess where we didn’t know where the girls would go.  It was suggested they go to the schools virtual schooling lab.  That idea was quickly discarded because it was mostly high school and middle school kids in that lab every day.  We didn’t feel comfortable allowing them alone with a bunch of older kids.  It just didn’t make us feel warm and fuzzy, plus I’d had unpleasant experiences with older kids in school that just makes me uneasy that they would experience the same.

We were concerned that they would have a hard time adjusting, but they took to school and getting along with the other kids like fish to water.  Both of them have blossomed and excelled and are excited about going to school.  Every day they come with new stories about new friends, fun games and interesting experiences.

We learned that Cookie has an 8th grade reading level and assessments report she would benefit from 6th/7th grade reading instruction.  She’s in the 3rd grade!!!  WHOA!  She devours books like candy.  I love that she loves to read.  We’ll keep an eye on her progress just to make sure she doesn’t get bored.  Right now she’s loving the new environment and doing much, much better than we ever could have anticipated.

BonBon truly enjoys her kindergarten class.  I’m happy that I get to do math, language arts and Spanish with her at home.  It’s been a pleasure discovering her learning style and how different she is from her sister.  She was very excited when she learned that she is the only other kid in her class that was moved to Accelerated Reading books and has to take AR tests on the computer every day. We are so proud.  And we thought she would be super shy and subdued.  Turns out she is just as willing to comply with her teachers as her sister is.  Even as nervous as she was at the beginning of the school year she doesn’t worry any more about whether or not the kids will like her or if she’ll have anyone to play with at recess.

Though we miss the days of their infancy and young toddler-hood we are happy to see them grow and progress!  Watching my in-laws and my own parents I know that my work will never truly be done.  I’ll always be a mom.

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