Cat Herder
I don't know when I became the cat herder/wrangler/circus trainer or when in fact my life became a circus act. I think it happened over a period of time, through a number of default decisions I made, and then became the status quo in my life. I did have a small inkling that this could happen when I realized that both my husband and child had the same attention span (which is short).
My hubby comes home from work and the minute he walks through the front door it's as if his brain switches off and then doesn’t turn back on again until it's time for him to step back out the front door and go back to work.
With my child I've sent her off a number of times to do a job, like clean her teeth in the morning, and ten minutes later she hasn't returned. I find that her teeth are still dirty and she has been distracted by a wonderful book to read, or an interesting game to play, or a beautiful ribbon to twill around her finger in her bedroom.
With my need to maximize our family time during the weekends, I realized that I had to step up and be in charge of “everything”. I should have realized, though, that this would doom me to this role of ‘Chief Cat Herder’: running the household and making sure that we don't run out of toilet paper or milk, being P.A.to my daughter's social life, and being the family’s weekend event manager.
Keeping everyone focused on the same track and herding them in the same direction can be darn frustrating. Some Saturday mornings just getting out the front door on time can be energy zapping for this time conscious (control freak) mother and perfectionist (anal retentive) wife.
Crayon Spoon Books
In this body of work, I am questioning: How pushy a mum am I? Are my expectations for my child too high?
Because I do expect my child to try and do her best in her school work as well as with her out of school activities. I also want bang for my buck (actually the bucks that we are spending on her music, swimming and gymnastics’ lessons each term could give us a nice family trip to Oz instead). More importantly I want her to have perseverance and be accountable for her actions. As an only child, I need her to realize that there is no silver spoon with her name on it at our house.
I want the best opportunities for her now and in her future. Providing Torie with the right tools that she will need is very important to me. Knowing that she will be prepared when her adolescent and early adulthood years arrive and be able to make smart decisions for herself and for her future is essential.
The book represents education & learning.
The crayon/spoon: the spoon is a tool which allows me to not only feed her body but also her mind and soul, the crayon allows my child to be a kid and explore. It is also a reminder to me that a child can be a sponge who wants to absorb everything and strive to make me happy. But like a crayon, children are fragile and if you push too hard then they can break.
