Is there not some need for “mother culture”? But how is the state of things to be altered? So many mothers say, “I simply have no time for myself!” “I never read a book!” Or else, “I don’t think it is right to think of myself!” They not only starve their minds, but they do it deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice which seems to supply ample justification….
The wisest woman I ever knew—the best wife, the best mother, the best mistress, the best friend—told me once, when I asked her how, with her weak health and many calls upon her time, she managed to read so much, “I always keep three books going—a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for!” That is the secret; always have something “going” to grow by. If we mothers were all “growing” there would be less going astray among our boys, less separation in mind from our girls.
It would seem as if we mothers often simply made for ourselves the difficulties we find in after life by shutting our minds up in the present. What we need is a habit of taking our minds out of what one is tempted to call “the domestic rag-bag”of perplexities, and giving it a good airing in something which keeps it “growing.” A brisk walk will help. But, if we would do our best for our children, grow we must; and on our power of growth surely depends, not only our future happiness, but our future usefulness.
Is there, then, not need for more “Mother Culture”?
-Parent’s Review, for the full article see here https://charlottemasonpoetry.org/mother-culture-pr/
Some of favorite books for Mother Culture in no particular order:
- For the Children’s Sake by Susan Shaeffer Macauley
- Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins
- Modern Miss Mason by Leah Boden
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson
- BookGirl by Sarah Clarkson
- Mother Culture by Karen Andreaola
- Last Child in the Woods by Robert Louv
- The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
- A Place to Belong by Amber O’Neal Johnson
- How to Talk So Kids will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber
- The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions by Emily Freeman
- Hard is Not the Same Thing as Bad by Abbie Halberstadt
- Until the Streetlights Come On: How a Return to Play Brightens Our Present and Prepares Kids for an Uncertain Future by Ginny Yurich
- Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts by Jennie Allen