My Mom is a Teacher
Life is about choices. Those choices are cut drastically if you’re a parent. And for mothers, for reasons ranging from biological necessity to societal pressures, those choices are exponentially decreased.
In the best of circumstances, becoming a mother is overwhelming and completely life-altering. For me, the most challenging part was being forced to reevaluate my goals to align with the needs of my children. While I have a supportive husband and extended family—my kids generally have an entourage at baseball games and school events—in all reality the lion’s share of parenting falls on the mother’s shoulders.
Most of us only think of our mothers as our mothers. We don’t take time to consider much about who they are as people—what their aspirations were before we came along and changed everything. We’re so used to our mothers giving and giving and giving, we often forget to ask. But everyone has some sort of dream—even moms.
Today, I asked my mom what she would have done had she not married my dad and had my brother and me. She said, “Probably been a teacher, I think.” If I were picking a profession for my mom, teacher is the ONLY one I would consider, so this didn’t surprise me. It did get me to thinking though…
My mom and me at my baby shower for Ollie, September 2008.
My mother spent 25 years working for Campbell County Schools as a Paraeducator. Half that time was in the library at Grant’s Lick School and the other half working in several different special education classrooms. I spent a lot of time volunteering in those classrooms when I was in college, mostly because I was studying to be a teacher, but also because watching my mom in action was pretty cool.
My mom has patience far beyond anybody I’ve ever met, she rarely raises her voice and is calm in situations where most anybody would lose their cool. Her ability to approach kids on their level is unmatched accept maybe by Mr. Rogers. She firmly believes in hands-on experience (our kitchen was regularly a disaster from my baking adventures), she is curious by nature and she loves being outdoors. For all of these reasons and many more, kids love my mom—I mean LOVE.
My mom helped countless children learn to count money, write a complete sentence and tie their shoes. Those children are now adults. Several of them work at our local Kroger (this link takes you to a story on one of her former students) where she enjoys seeing them on her weekly grocery visits. And while she is correct when she says she wasn’t the only influence that helped those students, I know she had more of an impact than she realizes.
While she may not think of herself as a teacher because she didn’t go to college to get the piece of paper stating it, I can say without a shadow of a doubt, she absolutely had a successful career as a professional educator—a teacher.
Now that she’s retired, she spends a lot of her time with my boys. She has taught them how to do many things—build a fire, cook and bake, care for animals, pitch a baseball, tie their shoes—the list is endless. While all of these lessons are important and beyond valuable, the most important thing my mother taught me, my boys and anybody she comes into contact with is to be kind.
I guess the lesson here is that being a parent may alter our goals, but the core of who we are will still shine through. If you’re lucky enough to still have your mother, I challenge you to ask her how she envisioned her life before you came along. It might give you insight you hadn’t imagined or it may reinforce what you already suspected. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!
