Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Struggles of Motherhood

This morning I was thinking about what I might blog about tonight. Initially I was unsure what to say about farming etc. as not much has happened over the last couple days except work for me and today was a run around day filled with my kids school activities and then it hit me. Even though it is not about farming it is about family and most of us have one. This has been my internal struggle for years! What is best for your child? Homeschooling/Private School/Public Schools. Both my kids went to Montessori preschools, Country Boy's was not an official "Montessori" school but totally based on the concept and Flower Girl's was an official "Montessori" school that was wonderful but cost us as much a John's nursing degree. That was always the joke as Flower Girl's went to that school while John was in nursing school and the monthly payment for Flower Girl was $500/mo with only 9 hours of after school care/week plus the preschool hours. I agonized for quite some time as to what would be best for the kids until John, the sensible one, finally set me straight. He said "we will start with public school and then if there are problems we will go from there." That simple statement set me with ease and I was over that hurdle. So far the kids have done great in "public school"! Regardless I have always had a great interest in homeschooling families. My in-laws home school and they have amazing children with the first born attending her first year of college at the University of Texas. They are a respectable bunch of cultured individuals and I admire my sister-in-law for all she has done to provide her children! I also work with a couple of homeschooling Mommas and I often pick their brain. Ironically I had a man stop by the house unexpectedly the other night to check out our chicken pen. He lives about 1/4 mile from us and they too are a homeschooling family of 7, 2 are in college and 3 are still home. He was an interesting guy as his family sounded as so. They invited us up to visit and we hope to go up this week. He said his wife just started a new 4H group so I'm excited to meet her and see what may come of this. I also met a lady in the ER the other day that home schooled her 4 girls and all of her 16 of her grandchildren are home schooled, she too has a blog that I checked out.
Although this is an interest of mine I still feel that the public school system works for our children and us. There may come a point in time that it does not but for now they are happy and we are too. I question if I would be patient, dedicated, or smart enough to school my children and I do LOVE my time to shop alone, go to the gym, listen to tunes uniterupted in the car. Not sure if anyone else has this feeling but in the morning when the kids get on the bus I feel this surge of adrenaline through my body screaming freedom for a few hours . Do not get me wrong I look forward to picking the kids up in the afternoon and the weekends as well as vacation time. I love them dearly and only want the best for them!
I will end this note with a video you have to check out! Amy sent it to me tonight and it was perfect to add to this post. I watched it a couple times to catch all that was said, turn up your volume ladies! Thanks for sharing Amy...to all you Mommas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVVICZuhWn0

4 comments:

VisionaryRN said...

I have said and done ALL of this at one time or another! Absolutely hillarious! Oh the wonders, frustrations, joys and desperate simililarities we all share as Mommas! It is nice to see and hear others jump the same hurdles in life and live to poke a little fun at it!

Anonymous said...

It's definately tough to send our children out in todays society and not worry about there influences. We have the issue of moving alot and the kids have to change schools all the time. They love being the new kids! We are always worrying about them and they are fine. I think for us as long as we keep a good eye on what they are doing and being taught, public school is good. Some better then others of course;) It also gives the kids time to socialize with other children. I have alot of respect for mothers who do homeschool though. I do not have the patience as a military mom to pull it off. I am already both mommy and daddy most of the time when he is deployed. I couldn't be teacher too and keep my sanity. All moms need a breather:) Great insights there Kim:)
Regina

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic video!!!! I cracked up!

One day soon, I'll get to say those very things to my child (whoever we are blessed to adopt).

Neat!

Blessings!
Lacy

Anonymous said...

I'm an RN, too!!

I only just read your "about me" section!
**blushing wildly**

Blessings!

Lacy