When we lived in Vidalia, GA, I was a young mother. I had three small children. There was a more experienced woman in our church that once went on a trip with me, I don’t even remember why we were out and about, but we went to a fast food restaurant. There were young girls there that we doing something that was more mature than their years. She gave her opinion about that. She said that she felt that they wanted to do things that they shouldn’t be old enough to do because there were no limits. Anyone can do anything at any age and there are no rules to say otherwise. It got me thinking. I decided that with the help of my children, we would decide what was an appropriate age to do certain things. I made a list for the ages of things. Every age was listed, and there was something that would be appropriate at that age and not before. I think it worked pretty well for us. The only real problem that I had with it was the girls had an age at which they could get their ears pierced. I took them down and we got them professionally pierced. One of my girls told me that she wouldn’t have gotten her ears pierced at all if it were not for the list. I guess that was a problem. The best thing about this was that there was never a question about how old you had to be to date or when they could start shaving their legs or wearing makeup. It was all down on paper, and we followed it.
More than following the list though, I think about that woman and the wisdom that she was willing to share with me as a young mother. I was inexperienced, and I knew it. I am grateful that I was willing to learn from someone that was old enough to be my mom. I respected her opinion, and it influenced how I raised my own children. Often I don’t see young mothers that want to learn from my experience. That is one of the reasons I decided to start this blog. Somewhere there may be a young mother who is searching for someone to learn from. Just maybe, I might be that for her.
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