At the start of my parenting journey I had the unspoken notion of wanting to be that ‘perfect mom.’ Let alone being the ‘perfect wife.’
I will not bore you with the years of details of how I discovered that this is an absolutely absurd goal as well as an impossible feat to conquer.
Crash and burn. Worn out trying. Frustrated at the results. Epic mountain of failure. No self-confidence.
By child number three (of the four I birthed) I realized ‘perfection’ wasn’t my calling in life. Ha!
Sadly, the reality of my inability to be perfect in homeschooling came much later after discovering that I can’t be a perfect mother nor wife.
All the other Moms around whose children were striving for college scholarships, South Carolina’s Palmetto Fellows or involved in tons of extracurricular activities became my measuring stick. And trying to ‘measure up’ was driving me insane (ok…not literally). Ths mindset was taking the fun out of schooling the littles that I loved the most.
Basically because I was driven with ‘others homeschooling model.’
After doing this, that and the other in my homeschooling…..
After seeing our extracurrilar monthly expenditures almost equal to the amount of a monthly payment of 2017 Porsche….
After operating in an emotional deflation mode……
After seeing my 2nd oldest struggle to read until he was almost 10 years old…..
After realizing none of my children loved math like I did but science instead. Boohoohooo……
I figured I didn’t want that job any more. The job of ‘being pefect.’
What I did want was my freedom. My freedom to be what I needed to be as a homeschooling Mom to the children the Lord had called me to home educate.
I didn’t know at the time but what I wanted was to be authentic.
Authenticly me.
I’m not the craft-sy type of Mom.
I’m not the sports Mom.
I’m not the write out your lessons plan for the entire homeschooling year type of Mom.
I’m not the super creative Mom.
Nope.
I could keep the list going but ….. I’m not going to do that. Ha!
Sometimes we do have to go beyond our limits and stretch ourselves. If we don’t then we don’t grow.
But what I am saying we have to do is be willing to give up being perfect so that we each can be authentic. And in being authentic I truly believe we then can soar in what we set out to do year after year in our homeschooling journey with our Beloveds.
So….shun perfection.
Embrace authenticity.
And enjoy the homeschooling journey!
Serving You and Yours,
Angela Jordan Perry,
UCHU owner/administrator/director