MamaBlogger365 - Motherhood's Liminal Space by Catherine Childress

This summer is the first in three that I have been completely free of college classes and homework. Although I have chosen never to attend traditional summer classes, opting instead to be home with the kiddos, I have taken online classes which is quite time consuming.

The end of May found me counting down days until the kids were home from school so we could enjoy summer totally unencumbered by schedules - theirs or mine. I looked forward to all the things we would do together, recreating memories of summers past when I followed behind their bikes to the empty high school parking lot, perfect for riding to their heart's content, sitting by the community pool while they played in shallow water with their friends, and afternoons at the park.

Here in August, kids back in school, graduate school swiftly approaching, I reflect back on a summer which turned out quite different than I expected.

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MamaBlogger365 - Creating a Fantastic Relationship with Your Kid at Any Age by Fran Capo

Fran Capo

I’m blessed. My son and I are best friends. People often ask what makes you and your son Spencer so close? So I thought about it, talked to him about it, and here’s what it narrows down to.

To start with, I believe I had the best mom in the world. She was supportive, loving, fun, positive, spiritual, a great listener (that’s probably how I became a fast talker) and taught me nothing was impossible. I could tell her anything. Everyone wanted to adopt my mom as their mom. My mom was a housewife, and although she worked before she had us (I have a sister), when we came along, we were her world. It wasn’t until much later in life, after we were grown, that she worked again and became an assistant teacher.

Okay, so fast forward....

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MamaBlogger365 - Parenting to Potential by Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller

May 19, 1997. 3:14 a.m. In the months, hours, and minutes leading up to that life-changing moment, I knew I was going to have a blessed addition to my life. What I didn’t know was that my life was about to change at the most fundamental level.... read more

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MamaBlogger365 - Growing up in a Mother's Eye by Veronica Hosking

Motherhood through a poet's eyes -- Mamazina's Veronica Hosking for MamaBlogger365 with Mamapalooza, for the Museum of Motherhood. Click here to read more!

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MamaBlogger365 - On Memory and Motherhood by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

This post is about memory. About how critical it is to understanding family life, about how “wrong” it is, about how it differs so sharply from family member to family member. I use to put great stock in my recollections of my childhood. I used to recite narratives about what happened and what people said and who was responsible and even why people did what they did, as if I had any access whatsoever to the why’s of other people’s actions, especially as a child. I used to tell these tales with fair confidence. They were true because I remembered them. But I don’t do that so much anymore. Even when I’m explaining moments from my past to my therapist, I usually mention something about a grain of salt and not quite a grain of faith in my recollections. I don’t know if it’s feeling more and more like a grownup, or if it’s my exposure to my own kids’ narratives that occasion me to tell my tales with reservation, but I’m learning that family memories are a peculiar thing. Read more...

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MamaBlogger365 - Every Day is Mother's Day by Elizabeth Kathryn Gerold-Miller

My Mom
Elizabeth
Nice, loving,
Hardworking, moneymaking, caring,
Very nice to people
Mom
Happy Mother’s Day 2011

This was the card my ten-year-old son gave to me the day after Mother’s Day. He had written it in school, of course, as the teacher has them do every year, but had forgotten to give it to me, as I knew to be the case.

I was just as pleased to receive this on Monday afternoon. The adjectives I knew came straight from his heart, and I was pleased to see how he saw me. It was nicely balanced between the characteristics of the traditional mom and those of the modern mom. My Monday was much more relaxing than my Sunday, and I soaked it all in. Read more...

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Photo credit: Happy Boy And Mum by Peter Griffin

MamaBlogger365 - Ebb and Flow by *Dr Mama* Amber Kinser

This post is about the ebb and flow of mothering. I’m thinking today about how impermanent any given moment in mothering is and how that can be a source of comfort and hope. Of course it also means that experiences that are sweet and tender fade; “stellar mom moments” fade (I wrote about this in a post on “necessary losses”); the life stages of your child or children that you most connected with fade. But the upside is that the children grow and change, even as you do, so in stages or phases where you feel stuck, you don’t stay stuck there for long. read more

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Photo credit Ocean by Bobby Mikul