The Mom Crowd

Today I picked up our family’s copy of 1001 Things Your Kids Should See & Do for the first time in a long time.  It was inspiring and encouraging, because it gave me some good ideas and reminded me that I am doing a pretty good job of being a mom so far.   (Sometimes, I’m just a little too hard on myself.)  On the other hand, it showed me that I can’t even do (or haven’t yet done) some of the things on the list.  Ruh-roh!

Some random selections:

• “No. 28:  They need to see you struggle with difficulties.”  This one resonates with me a lot lately; the kids have seen my hubby & I struggling with bills, physical pain, and a fire where my hubby works.  And all of this was just in the past week!  As much as I want to put on a happy face for them, it just isn’t possible every minute of the day.  What they’ll remember is how we handled that stress.
• “No. 53:  They need to listen to Mozart or Beethoven every morning before school.”  Now if only I can find some Mozart or Beethoven!
• “No. 85:  They need to stand up when meeting an adult.  And shake hands while looking them in the eye.”  I like this.  I would love to meet a child (or teenager!) who can do this.  It is so rare.  And it is obvious from a lot of adults I meet that this skill is not taught that often.
• “No. 105:  They need to give up their bedroom to visiting friends and relatives.  It’s good practice for future giving.”  It sure is.  This one challenges me.  We have company coming in a few days and the thought has actually crossed my mind to give them our room.  But that means I’d have to clean EVERY room in the house!  Ha!   This is probably not so practical with a 2-year old and a 1-year old.  So I’ll bookmark this idea for a few years from now.
• “No. 148:  They need to RSVP.  It doesn’t matter what it stands for, it simply shows whether they were raised by wolves or not.”  Amen!  My hubby posts a lot of his youth group activities on Facebook (where they all hang out when they’re not actually hanging out), and most kids can’t even be bothered to check the “maybe” box, let alone “yes” or “no”!  I’ve often said that RSVP-ing is a dying art; my poor friends used to host a dinner at their house every Tuesday night and they’d never know if they’d be cooking for 2 or 20.  Guess what?  They don’t do Tuesday night dinners anymore.    It’d be great if current parents would commit to teaching their children that simply saying “yes” or “no” to an invitation is courteous and essential.

If you have this book, what’s a tip you like?  I’ll be posting more of these in the coming weeks.