I've mentioned Brain,Child here before, my favorite publication about mothering that doesn't tell you ten ways to get your kids to eat zucchini. It's filled with good writing and lots of good thinking about the stuff no one can reduce to a bullet-pointed list. It also makes me feel better when I feel overwhelmed, because a lot of the writers are dealing with parenting dilemmas bigger than mine. And they usually do so with a better sense of humor than I can muster on my worse days.
Take this month's article by Elizabeth De Vos about visiting a Kindermusik class. She asks some of the same questions I do before signing up for anything, but then she goes further. . . much further. Turns out she lives with OCD (literally, I'm not being snarky), so watching a plastic shaker go unsanitized really does bring up issues for her.
My favorite quote of late has been, "Be kind, because everyone you know is fighting a great battle." I know this from ministry, but it's easy to forget it in the day-to-day interactions of parenting. You watch someone else parent and either judge them or yourself harshly, depending on whether you think you're doing better or worse. But the reality is we can hardly ever know just what kind of practical, relational, and emotional difficulties other people deal with. I am fortunate to be able to work less than full-time, raise my kids, and maintain some semblance of a marriage. But we are slobs -- no really, we are. If I had higher housekeeping standards, or if, God forbid, my mind wouldn't let me relax a little about all the dust bunnies and germ-laden stuff my children encounter, I'd have to quit my job (or my spouse would). I sometimes feel bad about my "shortcomings,"but in the end I am grateful that I can choose my own priorities and not be a slave to economic, emotional or medical realities that limit the choices of others.
