School conferences yesterday! I am so proud to be mama to my girls. They are learning what they need to learn, they are kind, they are polite, they are doing exactly what they need to do and are where they need to be.
I was a handful for my parents. Our house was total chaos, literally and figuratively so perhaps there is some truth to the nurture over nature. I mean, I don't remember my parents ever sitting down with me to do homework, there were three babies younger than me to worry about and my mom's favorite firstborn to help along. The second child, it was texbook. Oh and physical safety wasn't a big concern either...roaming free on a farm...the only real injuries I sustained were stepping on a rusty nail. Oh and there was the trauma of being tasked with holding a large heavy fence by myself to block 20 steers into the barn only to have one 1000lb cow knock the fence down with me under it while he walked over it. My ankle hurt, my dad told me to sit on the side of the barn and informed me that if I really needed medical attention, it would be an escort by ambulance as he didn't have time to take me, what with all the steer wranglilng that was going on that night. There was another time when I was riding on the back of a hay wagon while picking rocks and swung my leg under the tire and cranked my ankle. Or the time where I was riding on the back of a tractor with my dad and he dropped a large, HEAVY axle bar on top of my foot. Then there were all those times where my parents would first pick me up HOURS after that Brownies meeting ended, or volleball practice or whathaveyou. The teachers never cared and were glad they didn't have to wait around like that poor, pathetic kid whose life they were suppose to have a hand in. One time, during the dead of Feburary, my dad picked me up outside at about 8:30 (past a structured kid's bedtime for sure)...pitch black, in Barton, WI...I waited for hours outside my school during the winter? I tried to get the nuns who lived in the house right next to our school to offer a little shelter but for some reason, there was nothing they could do either. So Harry Potter esque in its beginings. I wondered at times if they wanted me maimed or killed...not just my parents but all of them.
Parochial schools, and society, are a little different these days. But, my childhood was a bit extreme.
So, yeah, nurture. I can't feel guilty for what I did as a kid anymore but I am so glad that my kids aren't dealing with the same. Those girls are making the most of the time they are spending in their activites...soccer, softball, dance, school and it is so different from they way I approached things. Keep it up, girls. Mama's got your back. Right now, I am loving teacher conferences. And I always hope to provide a safe and SANE landing at home, God help me.
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