Dragon Mothers and Parenting Mistakes
In a previous post, I wrote:
Oh my, you should see my file of ‘failed’ podcasts. Yesterday, I added another one to the pile. “How did your podcast go, Mum?” my daughter Imogen asked me, and I replied, “It wasn’t quite right. It didn’t flow.” And with a sigh, I added, “I’ll have to record it again.”
Well, today, I had another go. I recorded a new version of episode 118 (on a different topic). Is it better than the first one? Is it a perfect podcast? Probably not, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!
This week, I’m talking about the times when we don’t like who we are and the way we’re parenting our kids. I answer the following questions:
How did I get the nickname The Dragon Mother?
How did I get on top of my quick-temper and become a more calm and patient mother?
Am I now a perfect mother or do I still make mistakes?
How did my first child cope with her inexperienced dragon mother? Was she irreversibly affected by my far-from-perfect parenting?
Do we actually need to be perfect parents?
Is the unschooling life perfect?
I also tell a lot of stories.
Episode 118 begins in this way:
Today’s episode was inspired by a recent comment on my blog. Somebody stopped by and remarked on how I appear to be a calm and patient mother. And I was thinking about how, years ago, I could never have imagined that anybody would describe me ‘in that way. No, I was a real dragon mother. (You might have heard some of my dragon mother stories.) So to be associated with the words calm and patient seems like rather a miracle.
Not that I’m perfect because what I also want to talk about today is those times when life gets very overwhelming and we don’t react in a way that we would like. Yes, sometimes we just ‘lose it’. And even though I’m a lot better than I used to be, there are times when I do have wobbly moments, when I go backwards, when I say and do things that I regret later. I say to myself, “How could I have said that? How could I have done that?”
Sometimes we aren’t always the people we would like to be. We wonder if we’re going to scar our kids for life, if they are going to have horrible memories of their childhoods and the way we parented them.
If you can relate to any of this, I hope to encourage you to keep on going. Of course, I’m going to tie it all into unschooling.
Show Notes
Blog posts
Confessions of a Former Quick-Tempered Mother
Memories of an Inexperienced Mother
Imogen
Youtube channel, Imogen Elvis.
Facebook: Imogen Elvis
Instagram: Imogen Elvis
Podcast music
Twombly by Podington Bear, (CC BY-NC 3.0)
Thank you for listening. If you enjoy my podcast, please consider writing a review or rating this episode on Apple Podcasts. Or maybe you could share this post link so we can spread the word about unschooling!
Please feel welcome to leave a comment on today’s episode. Or just stop by to say hello!
Image: I took this photo of Sophie, Gemma-Rose and Imogen during the filming of the Mad World music video.