Because I can't leave well enough alone I thought I would add another paragraph or two on mothering.
I am a good mom, of course I am. I could be a better mom, of course I could.
This point was driven home over the last month. In fact, Mother's Day marked the 1 month anniversary of our home closing. Can you believe a month has already passed? I can't!
During this month my sole responsibility has been in the care, feeding, and nurturing of my children. And guess what? I don't think I was doing much of that before!
When you are living without your "stuff", your luxuries and conveniences, distractions, etc that come with being settled in once place you realize how much of your time is taken up with non-essential functions. Being out of my surroundings has been good and bad.
Good because it has helped me focus on my main job: being a mother. There is no other choice, there is nothing to do. Bad because I hate to admit that I want something else to do, I like my distractions.
Truthfully, I have plenty to do - I just don't want to do it. Case in point: homeschooling
One of my friends is a home-schooling mama. She has a t-shirt with the superman logo on it that says Homeschool Mom. Homeschooling is not at all like I thought it would be.
Because my son left in the middle of a semester we could either transfer him to another school for the last few weeks or homeschool. Because we wanted to split our time between both of our parents homes as a type of extended vacation stay, I opted for homeschool. I had not idea what I was getting into.
My son and I go round and round all day. Me trying to get him to do his work, him trying to get out doing work. What should take 10 minutes takes 45 minutes. The majority of the time he is complaining about how unfair his life is and how I am not letting him have any fun. I know I am not having any fun.
I like to think this is just a product of being on "vacation" and that if our situation were different, this experiment might be different also. Everything might be different. Regardless I am in awe of women who can successfully homeschool their children. It is not easy being responsible for the execution of their education. I am still trying to figure out how they manage to shower, cook, and clean while undertaking that task. I get why she has that shirt. I would wear mine proudly, if I could actually do it.
My MIL homeschooled my husband-- a surgeon in training--. The key is to give the child some flexibility. My husband used to goof around for 3 days and then buckle down for 1.5 days. He has ADD and he is able to hyper focus but being consistent day in and out is hard for him. Maybe try to give your son 2 days off with the carrot being that one day he works his tail off and gets all weekly assignments DONE. Homeschooling is hard. I would never want to do it unless I was in a situation like yours: temporary. Happy schooling!
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