Advise to Mothers

I heard a cute interview with Chuck Barris on PBS today.

In high school he wrote a Dear Abby type of column for his school paper called "Advise to Mothers."

As you may note I haven't wrote on my blog for sometime. You may ask why would this topic encourage me to write a blog entry. Well I'm a grandmother to 20 children of all ages. Sometime I scream in my hear "mother wake up."

In life I feel all children want to hear from there parents that they are being heard. This voice come in many forms. For instance 1. If a teen child dresses provocatively maybe that child is saying "I need some male time?" So moms response should be, hey dad spend a little more time with your daughter. 2. If a preschooler has temper tantrums, maybe moms should respond by spending more one on one time with that child. 3. If a 20 something child cusses around his girlfriend enough to make a sailor blush, maybe mom should work at boosting her sons self image.

Its not easy being a mother. There is no parenting class that teaches us how to parent that is worth a darn. After all each child is an individual, each family dynamic is different.

Its only when you are a grandparent that you feel you have some parenting skills, and truthfully by then your kids have grown and you can't put you parenting skills to work.

When I had children in the house I was sure when each of them turned 18 I would be done parenting. It was a 18 year sentence with a beginning and an end.

Now I know that parenting is a lifelong adventure. After I turned the tv off and thought of the Chuck Barris interview I chuckled. I remembered him on the Gong Show. On the Gong Show had a person with or without talent that was gonged and giggled at to the entertainment of the viewer.

To Chuck and his book and his goofy interview I send out a deafening Gong. With or without you cute little smirk you also don't have the answers in life for mothers.

My advise? 1. Fly...by the seat of you pants. 2. Be flexible. 3. Nobody has to take my advise.