Comments on: Parenthood as a Career

By: aaroncoombes

aaroncoombes — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:15:15 +0000

Thankyou Terrie, for your blog. I have been struggling for a while as a parent to identify with my role and what I am supposed to do. Your blog has brought some clarity into my life and I really appreciate it.

One of the main concerns that I have as a parent is my sons ongoing education. I liked your comments regarding expanding on what they are doing at school and to be a part of their education.

Your right about their education being general at school. There are so many specifics to expand on and teach them. I also liked what you had to say about reading them to sleep and switching to books that you enjoy reading as they drift off. I love it. I do spend some time reading to them but rarely do it at bed time. I tend to put them to bed and then start thinking its my time now.

The time that we have is not that long. I believe that reading to them at bed time will have an impact on them and will help the bond. I think it will also help them to appreciate my interests in reading as well. I can’t say that I read a lot but I do have a number of books of interest that I do like to find the time to read. I have never thought about reading them to my boys though.

I think from now on I am prepared to make a commitment to read to my boys for half and hour to an hour a night. It will help them settle down. I don’t want to do it every night though, I don’t want to make them dependant on me for going to sleep. I will start out with once or twice a week and then go from there.

As much as I am committed to my sons, I still need time out at the end of the day to my self. As I start work at 2am in the morning so I like to get to sleep by 9:30pm at the latest. Our boys are generally in bed to go to sleep at 7pm. So I could get them into bed by 6:30 and read them off to sleep. Yep I’m going to take that on.

I look forward to and really like the idea of reading my books of interest that I think would bore them. I also have to admit that I love the attention, your idea would give me a captive audience. I like that 😉

I have some books on sales that I would love to read to them as well as lots of books about business. I love educating my self on cooking as well.
I love your idea of reading the books that I have a personal interest in.

Terrie, thank-you so much for sharing. This is my first time visiting LDSblogs.com and your article was the very first one that I read. You have made my visit a pleasure.

By: Hill

Hill — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:45:11 +0000

I loved my visit to your blog, and I really enjoyed this article. I am a SAHM to 5-month old, so I appreciated your ideas for making ‘mindless’ tasks mindful and meaningful.

By: Terrie Lynn Bittner

Terrie Lynn Bittner — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:33:45 +0000

In reply to CAL. Thank you! I know many parents who manage a writing career, but I'm not good at juggling a lot of things. I did it from four to six A.M. so I wouldn't take time away from my family, but once I started homeschooling them, I needed that time for preparation. Since I couldn't effectively juggle so many things, I set my priorities. Of course, I know a few great moms who juggle homeschooling and writing with very large families, and never take time from their children, so it's an individual thing, I guess. The important thing is that when it's time to cut something, we don't cut family time. We have to know ourselves and our own capabilities and have our priorities firmly in place.

By: Terrie Lynn Bittner

Terrie Lynn Bittner — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:29:13 +0000

In reply to Jonathan.

Jonathan, thank you for your comments. I homeschooled my children and it’s great to see the first generations of homeschoolers growing up and showing their wisdom. I love that you’re already giving thought to the type of parent you want to be–it’s the best way to be sure you’ll do it well.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:22:53 +0000

I really appreciated your blog. I’m not a parent yet, and will not be for a little while, but reading this blog made me even more excited to be a parent.
I plan on going to law school, and if I don’t end making the bar I want to work for the FBI, and both professions are fairly time consuming. But this article helped me to find inspiration and give me ideas on how to keep up with parenting skills, how to make time count, and how to do it in a way that is best for my family.
I was raised in a homeschool family, so I am definitely an advocate for that route and plan on homeschooling my own kids, but I especially appreciated the comments about learning and going into depth. Public schools seem to be degrading in quality every year, and if we want our children to be truly educated, we are going to need to create a home-based learning atmosphere, even if we do not go all the way and start homeschooling. Family discussions and discussing books after they’re read will solidify and sink down into children’s hearts the eternal principles taught in many classic books, books like the Virginian that are fun and exciting even for rowdy boys but that teach great morals, courage, and how to stick up for yourself.
As well, teaching skills such as independent thought, analytical thinking, and problem solving is vitally important in this day and age. If the rising generation is supposed to be a leader generation, we need to build our children into the great leaders now. We need to instill in them a sense of liberty and greatness, integrity, wisdom, courage, virtue and diplomacy, and give them the tools to carve out a life in an increasingly dangerous world.
Even more so, I loved your ideas about multi-tasking, and your over-all exhortations to just take time for the family, to make it more than just something you do after you are home from work. Obviously we are all too aware of the adversary’s attacks on the family, and if we don’t make time to protect and build up the family it falls. But if the family falls so does freedom and civilization, if you take the warnings present in “1984” and “Brave New World” seriously.
So thank you for your blog. It did not fall upon deaf ears, and I will definitely remember this as I take my place in the parenting world.

By: CAL

CAL — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:29:41 +0000

I wonder why people think that parenthood is unchallenging. I am not yet a parent (and still single,) but most parents I have spoken with would disagree. I do understand why people may say that parenthood is not intellectually challenging, however. Certain activities like cooking food or cleaning the bathroom may seem rather mindless, but while I am in college, I enjoy cleaning my apartment more than doing homework. (Granted, I may become bored of cleaning if I was to do it all day, but right now, I would rather be a busy homemaker than a busy college student.) This article rings home to me. I am attending college and preparing for a possible career because I know I may need to support myself and perhaps my family one day, but my dream career is to be a wife and a mother. The suggestions in this blog make that career seem more exciting!
I appreciate your article. Another way that I feel a personal connection is that you are a writer and you put your career on hold for your children. I also want to be a writer. But your article has strengthened my conviction of the importance of being a wife and a mother over having a career.