Wednesday: Educating Ourselves

Educating Ourselves

When you begin a new job, you are usually trained to be competent in it. A period is set aside during which you are taught and given the support, skills and resources to reach a good standard of work. You are often mentored by a more experienced worker for a while.

This does not happen when we first get married and/or have a our first baby. :-)

There is an assumption that our mothers would have taught us everything we need to know, which may or may not be true, and there is also an assumption that we will instinctively know how to mother a baby. In my experience, neither were true and, so, I initiated a serious self-education campaign!

Books and friends were my first recourse when I started out. Later, the internet became a source of much useful (and much useless!) information. Peer-to-Peer support can be valuable, but don't feel you need to re-invent the wheel in order to prove you are capable; other, older women have gone ahead of you and many are more than happy to offer their help or suggestions. That's what this blog is all about.

Young Housewife, Oil on canvas, by Alexey Tyranov (1801-1859). The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

It's not a matter of failing if you need to ask for help. In fact, it's the first step in being successful at something. We aren't all born housekeepers, home-creators or mothers. It's heartening to know that it is possible to learn 'on the job'.

To learn is to grow, dear Daughter, and it's a life-long process.

Mimi is a wife to Jamie, mother to two grown up children, a mother-in-law and a grandmother to a darling little grand-daughter. She home-educated her children and now teaches exam subjects to groups of home-educated children. She's a Worship Leader in her church and has a passion for helping women raise children to adulthood with a strong faith in the Lord Jesus.