It snowed in southeast North Carolina a few days ago and the evidence remains. Once in autumn 2022 it snowed—big, fat flakes wafted to the ground only to melt. Since then, I’ve resorted to watching Snapchat videos of falling snow shared by my family in east Tennessee. When I traded the mountains for the ocean, I didn’t realize how much I’d miss winter weather.
Upon reflection, I know why. A snow day is a bonus day. No one expects you to work from home, mop the floor, or even catch up on the stack of open mail you’ve been moving from one end of the island to the other. The kids play together, fights that occurred ten minutes ago are suddenly unimportant. When the whole family goes out to build a snowman, you can let everything go, knowing the only task you need to do is make steaming hot chocolate to warm freezing hands.
In addition to weather-related content, you’ll find:
- Mom content
- Teenager and elementary ages included
- Marriage content?
- Queer content
- Dog content
- Teaching content
- nontoxic
- Writing content
- mostly me lamenting my procrastination on finishing my book
- Fiber arts content
- And whatever you or the universe bring to my attention
I’ve long operated on the assumption that no one cares about what I have to say. I am nobody, really. In my first semester of grad school, a professor said that everyone has something to write about (in reference to creative non-fiction). Well, I tried my hand at writing creative non-fiction, but for some reason that my therapist probably knows, I’ve never been able to successfully write about my children or parenting. I wrote one essay revolving around my daughter and it was the hardest thing I’d ever written. Believe me, I’m all for putting these kinds of things off for another day (see procrastination above) but this particular piece was more than an essay; it was a therapeutic release of guilt and shame I’d been carrying for literally her whole life.
That brings us to now. I’ve come to the fake it ‘til you make it portion of raising a teenage girl: high school dating and friendships. Let me tell you—I had it all figured out. I’d been planning for this moment since she was born. I’d told my husband what was allowed and what wasn’t, how to approach and when not to. I’d crafted a nonchalant personality that listened when she shared every detail of her day—externally nonchalant, internally hyper-chalant—and I thought I was ready.
Reader, I wasn’t.
So now you see why mom content is at the top of the list. How do we retain our individual personhood and walk the line between confidant and protector of our children? How do we bring generational knowledge to the conversation and be an emotionless blank slate?
In future posts, I plan to bring more questions and maybe some answers. Hopefully you will, too.
Photo by Aditya Vyas on Unsplash