Rules and Worst Mothering Moments - Book club today inspired by "Writing Motherhood"
As announced the other day, it is book club time again at Silicon Valley Moms Group and New Jersey Moms Blog is hosting. Today, we have been "invited" by author Lisa Garrigues' book Writing Motherhood to write about one of two topics:
1) Rules! Rules! Rules! The first thing Lisa tells her students is to throw away the rules of writing because rules bind our imagination, constrain our creativity, and muffle our voices. Our children, however, live much of their lives according to rules-rules that are imposed in the classroom, in the cafeteria, on the playing field. Think about the way rules function in your household. Which rules are non-negotiable? How have the rules changed as your children have grown older? Our writing invitation: Write about a time your child broke the rules.
2) Good Enough. In her book, Lisa recounts a time she was a "bad" mother, first leaving her sick daughter to fend for herself, then dropping her daughter at the tutor, only to forget to pick her up an hour later. Think of a time you slipped up as a mother-lost your temper, said no for no reason, sent your child to school with a fever. Our writing invitation: Write about your most outrageous or inexcusable bad mothering moment.
What were we inspired to share? Take a look and join the discussion as....
- New Jersey Moms Blog's Vanessa misses the bus as she recalls her worst mothering moment
- New Jersey Moms Blog's Stacey talks about the rules.
- Felicity from Cake determines the limits that work
- Monica from Paper Bridges tells a story of a beloved bear
- Anne from My Tiny Kingdom talked too much
- Cindy from We All Fall Down sees blood
- Mama Bird from Surely You Nest thinks about her complicated relationship with rules
- Tracey from Just Another Mother Blog boils over
- Fiona from MommyVents talks about her mixture of moments
- Melissa from Fits & Giggles remembers the first lie
- Lynette from the Reviews From The Radio thinks rules are good enough
- Bonnie from Just Peachy Baby thinks maybe following the rules has gone too far
- Jessica from Rose's Life is a bad, bad mommy
- Monica from Lady M prepares for an early career in cease-fire negotiations
- Cynthia writes about being a bad mother one time
- New Jersey Moms Blog's Stacey talks abut the rules and ponders them further at her personal blog Love Bug and Rolley
- Akemi from Chalk and Cheese bad mouths her own mother
- Linsey from Me Too You tells her children to stay where she can see them
- Karianna wrote two posts, one that says after focusing on the bad, turn it around and the other on writing motherhood, writing yourself
- Robin wrote about her first bad mothering moment
- Nicole wrote about recovering from a tonsillectomy
- Rox is learning to take care of herself
- Lia from Freitas Family Follies writes about bedtime routines
- Jane from This Week For Dinner blogs about her daughter falling into the pool
- Jennifer from Snapshot ponders over a beloved discolored blankie
- Sheila from Xiaolin Mama considers herself a rule breaker
.... and if you have a post up on YOUR personal site on these topics, please leave a comment below and we will add your link!
About Writing Motherhood: This book is very different, as Lisa truly is a muse and encourages us readers not just to read, but to write our motherhood experiences. For ourselves, for our kids, we are "invited" to recall the small moments, the big emotions, the lessons learned, the inevitable changes. Writing Motherhood guides moms in their efforts to journal their own trip through motherhood via a Mother's Notebook. Each chapter of the book is set up as a lesson with tips and examples at the end for us to do our own writing.