Read to Learn

Parent teacher conferences were Wednesday.  It was good to hear right from the teacher how my child was doing. Apparently, my middle child, the one I worried would never read a book in her life, is reading at a sixth grade reading level. She is a fourth grader. I’m so proud of her, and I know that it took a lot of hard work to get where she is.

I’m excited watching my children grow. I love seeing them develop into who they were meant to be. I try so hard to support, nurture and love them to my fullest potential, so that they may live up to theirs.

Occasionally, I wonder what kind of mother I would have been if I had not gone through the childhood experiences I had.

I’ve been told that I am an excellent mother and it’s probably because of the type of mother that I had.

My mother was no picnic, and when I say no picnic, it means there was not a picnic. I had no mother. In third grade I recall getting into fights with people because I was the kid ‘with no mother’. It was true, but I didn’t want it to be.

As a kid, I knew someone gave birth to me, I knew her name, but couldn’t remember for the life of me what she looked like. I was 9, 10, teens and a young adult. She just wasn’t there, ever. I was then married, and then a mother myself…yep, still no mom…well, technically by then she was reachable, but not emotionally.

So, when I meet the teacher and she tells me how wonderful my child is, and what good grades she has, and that I am doing a wonderful  job with her, I have to wonder, ‘Where do I get my mothering skills

Because, clearly my own mother did not have them.

Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe I get them from my grandmother. She loved me unconditionally, she was always there for me, and still is to this day. She’s funny, loving and straight up. I love her like she is my mother, always have and always will. She cared for people, showed you respect (if you deserved it) and she never faked who she was. She instilled manors and never, ever, ever, under any circumstance told me what to do or ‘I told ya so’.

There were many influences on me that could have contributed to my ability to being a good mother, but above of all, I think I learned the most about being a mother by reading books.

I keep telling my daughter that reading will open doors for her in every aspect of her life and that if she can read, she will be able to do anything.

I didn’t have a mother and I didn’t have sisters with children, so I read. At every stage and every age of my childrens lives, I read. I want to continually educate myself on parenting.  

Of course, every parent knows that it takes more than just reading a book to parent well, but it’s a great start.  So in my eyes, yes, you can do anything if you read. It worked for me.