The Blessing of a Skinned Knee

My friend Amanda and I are starting a blogging book club. I am very excited because Amanda is the mother of two adorable little girls and I know I will learn a lot from her (especially since I am still a little shocked and terrified about being the mother to a little girl). Amanda and I taught at GAC together and she is one of those people that is calm, reserved, and always thinks before she speaks. I have been extremely jealous of these qualities of hers for years and am so lucky to have her as a friend. :o)

We've decided to read at our own pace and blog about the parts we liked the most each Friday. Obviously, I am behind. But the book we are reading is called The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel. I'm not the best at reading parenting books because I just feel like there are 800 trillion opinions out there and you can make yourself crazy. But this book caught my attention because it is a mixture of pyschology and Jewish teachings. I know I am not Jewish but I read a different book a few years ago...Mudhouse Sabbath and loved it. Look it up and read it sometime. So anyways, there are a lot of Jewish principles that I really appreciate and respect so the book got me curious.

I have read the first two chapters so far and really enjoy it. The first chapter is about the blessing of acceptance. Its all about accepting your children for exactly who they are. It sounds like such a simple concept but I know there is more to it than that simply from sitting in hundreds of parent teacher conferences. Here are my favorite points....

• "Why are parents so anxious to be raising perfect children? The answer is twofold: pride and fear of the future." I think once Marin blesses our home and begins to have her own experiences, fear of the future will most definitely make a presence in her mommy. I'm realizing (especially after remembering those parent teacher conferences...) that this may take a lot of work and practice...
• The whole section on "ordinary holiness " on page 49. I loved the title and idea of ordinary holiness. She wrote about the holy places, holy objects, holy food of Judaism and they are simple, ordinary things. "Holy food? Challah, a plain egg bread." She continued by applying the principle to parenting by saying "the very democractic system gives a special grace to every child and stunning glory to his name."
• Instead of focusing on report cards and extracurricular activities, "if she senses that you respect her for the qualities for which she's been naturally endowed, she'll gain the confidence to truly shine..."

Again, it all seemed simple when I read it but I know that once Marin is here, I will need to be reminded to simply let her be herself...to have her own interests, hobbies, style, loves...and to appreciate all of them because it is what will make her Marin.