Years ago, at a Mops International meeting, I gathered at one of the many round tables in the Fireside room of a local church. The room was filled with a couple of dozen other mothers who had at least one child somewhere in the age range of 0-5. Some, like me, also had older children.
Our faithful group gathered together each month to visit, share ideas, eat good snacks, sip hot coffee or tea, and just flat out enjoy community with one another. The free childcare was also a top highlight for many of us who were feeling worn thin while raising babies and toddlers.
The speaker for the day gracefully poured out her wisdom for keeping peace in the home while raising children.
With my notebook in front of me and my ballpoint pen gliding across the page as fast as it could, I smiled and nodded my head like I already knew what she was saying.
Peace in the home? Oh yes, of course, I had that. I mean, kind of. I was getting by fine, anyway. Don’t all mothers feel frazzled at the end of the day? No? Okay, I kept listening.
The truth is I felt like I couldn’t let on that I didn’t have it all together and needed this advice deeply.
In hindsight, it was not only perfectly okay, but also a rich blessing to be able to accept the wisdom and learn from other women and mothers. Back then I was a younger 20-something that just felt like an amateur mom.
I carried on with my pen in my hand and my brain just filling with all sorts of ideas I could implement the minute I got home!
This woman spoke beautifully on the importance of setting the day up well when you have children of multiple ages. She explained the art of spending time with the youngest child, or children, first. Filling their cups, so to speak, helped them to be able to then play more independently for a while so she could then move on to the older children as they needed her.
This was some of the very best advice a homeschooling momma could hear! I took that advice right home and started practicing this the very next day. Here we are, years later, now we have child number four who is nearing two years of age, and this advice is still just as good and relevant today.
If after we all eat breakfast together, I spend my first few minutes of the day with my toddler, then my kindergartener, then the 5th grader, and then the 10th grader, as the older two need me, there is a whole different peace about the day.
If you are a momma with tips and tricks that are helping your home run smoother and keeping you sane, don’t keep them to yourself, share your wisdom! There just might be a young mom somewhere that needs to hear what you have to say.
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