I'm not a parent

Take a moment and do the pre-reading reading assignment for today's post. 

http://tinyurl.com/momwars

This popped up on my friend's Facebook today. I know that I'm going to face some heat for this post because I don't have any children but I do have some observations of both sides. These observations, along with mom war articles related to the issue of staying at home vs. working as a mother have oscillated in my head and made me consider what I might do when the time comes to chose a side.

While I'm not a mom, I face some of the same issues as the stay-at-home mother in my job as a teacher. There is isolation, the feeling that I'm not doing enough, a lack of appreciation from the kids, from other teachers, and from administrators, and pressure to do more and more and more with no idea what the outcome may be. And many of the teachers that I know who have quit their jobs to stay home with their kiddos enjoy it a LOT more than dealing with feisty teenagers all day.

That's the place I'm coming from. My adult time during the day comes down to 20 minutes at lunch, and even then, sometimes I work through lunch. Sometimes my peers do.

I don't have the experience of raising my own kids but I did my part to help form the character of 156 teenagers this year - and those are just the ones on my roster. I encounter and help far more than those in my classroom in any given year. I spend more time with other people's children than those kids spend with their parents. I counsel and advise in a way that parents don't get to experience because they are the parents. I implore my kiddos (and they are MY kiddos, though not biologically speaking) to talk to their parents or at least understand that their parents try their best to give their kids their best - even if they might be confused about what that is.

This article should be taken with a grain of salt; your individual experiences will vary. Not everyone feels the same way about each situation they're a part of. I imagine that if, when the time comes, I stay home with my children, there will be frustrating days, loss of sleep, feelings of inadequacy, and isolation. But, like in teaching, there will be moments of hilarity, adoration, and absolute joy.

It seems that girls will stop at nothing but to destroy one another. Mean girls grow up to be . . . mean girls. Stop the mom wars. Everyone has their own perspective on the whole kid issue. And not everyone's circumstance is the same. Maybe we should stop judging one another and instead use that energy to try to honestly understand and support one another. Kids need as many champions as they can find.