Teach Your Children Well

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a perfect parent. There were so many times my daughter used to yearn for a more conventional Mom instead of the windmill tilting feminist mother she had.

And I was definitely not the kind of mainstream Mom that her friends had. I refused to marry her father simply because we were in that minimal percentage that the pill didn't work for. From swimming to skiing and everything in between, we enjoyed a lot of time together doing outdoor things .... which of course meant that indoor things like housework didn't come anywhere close to the standards her friends' Moms kept.

As she got older, there were just so many more things to be embarrassed about. I never wore a bra off duty. Her friends' parents made some pretty sweeping judgements about me based on the fact that there are only so many hours in a day ... as a single shiftworking Mom, I wasn't going to spend more money on more babysitters so that I could spend more time away from my daughter by dating. And of course the fact that I'm a decent amateur carpenter was just one more thing that set me apart from the pack.

The lovely thing is that long before she graduated from high school we had become the best of friends.

Like everyone on this planet, she has grown up to be deliberately different from her Mom. At times I am bemused that I have raised such a lovely young woman. She is devoted to her husband and married him in the Catholic church he was baptised in. My beautiful granddaughter was a deliberate choice rather than the unanticipated blessing my daughter was. And yes, Colin and Justin would be hard put to find fault anywhere in her immaculate home. ( Whereas in my house they would weep at the leashes and dog coats hanging to dry on the ornamental wrought iron candle holders handy the wood stove ... lol )

More importantly, she grew up believing that it was the most natural thing to bring along our pets with us when we were posted .... and this was back in the days before all the military had the great moving benefits for pets. She took it for granted that once they came in the door, pets were part of the family for life.

In spite of the different window dressing, in our hearts we are very much the same. We are both strong willed and determined women. And we are both animal lovers.

When she met her husband, he had a young cat named Eddy. Eddy was there for their courtship and wedding. He kept her company when her husband deployed , and later on in a time of their choosing, Eddy was right there with her for long power naps while she was pregnant.

Eddy is living proof that it is completely possible to have a cat and a new baby in the same house. ( A little while ago I penned a little prenatal brochure for petowners for the society and the material in there was tried and tested first hand with Eddy : )))

When they moved to Ontario last year, Eddy came along.... singing for nearly the entire journey : )))

Even though she wouldn't want the four cat/ three dog petting zoo her Mom has, my daughter has seen first hand how much fun two cats can have. So now Eddy has a new friend, a beautiful adult kitty that they have named Belle. They used petfinder to search for Eddy's new buddy and brought her home this weekend from the Arnprior SPCA.

Anyone who reads this blog knows how important this middle aged granny thinks that humane education is. But I think my Dad hit the nail on the head when he used to say that with kids, 'more is caught than taught". All the humane education in the world isn't worth a hill of beans if we don't put our money where our mouth is.

When you teach your son, you teach your son's son. The Talmud