10.09.2009

Repost: Ask Beth

One of my first posts...
My daughter Pam is an amazing young woman.

The other day, we were emailing back and forth and I got into one of my mother modes. Mother mode is when I brainstorm with myself to "solve" all of my daughters' problems. All solutions end up sounding the same and include: "are you drinking enough water?" and "you should think about having a small business, how about selling Longeberger baskets?”

Pam pointed out that when she wants to share something with me- something she is trying to figure out- I don't listen to her. Instead, I end up offering unsolicited advice. She's right. When I do that, I am not treating her like an adult. Offering solutions to choose from is “pre kindergarten”; like when she was 4 years old and I let her choose what clothes she would wear that for that day…from clothes I had selected for her pick from. I get it now, she can pick from her own choices.

Pam doesn't say my ideas are not good; she just needs to come to certain things on her own, in her own time and in her own way. In the meantime, she managed her mother's blather with, "Sometimes when you say stuff...I feel like you are telling these things to yourself too. Have you ever considered taking a side job as at a magazine, as like an ask Beth column? ... I think you would be good at it..."

She's brilliant isn’t she?

God is a metaphor for that which transcends all levels of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that.
Joseph Campbell

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