What Happened to the Village

Last night The Husband passed me his IPad and told me to read this blog post.

I did and it hit home.

I definitely feel like I try to do too much sometimes with my crazies, mostly because everyone else seems to be able to have their $h!t together, and I feel like I don't.

Although I am not sure on where the saying "It takes a village to raise a child" originally comes from, in past generations there was a lot of truth to it. Nowadays, I ask where has the village gone? With most families having both parents work, too many activities to choose from even at the earliest ages, and competition running amok to have your child be the best, the first, the brightest, it is hard to see the village.

I think access to the internet has a big impact as well. Although obviously I am not immune to its power; I blog, I am on Facebook, I tried Twitter, I reject Pinterest. I think the information that is out there is overwhelming to parents. What you should be doing with your child from activities to feeding to sleeping is laid out by scores of 'parenting' websites. What happened to a parent just knowing what their child needs? What happened to letting children be children and make believe and play with whatever is handy? Why do we push them so hard at such an early age?

In previous generations, most mothers did not work, lived fairly close to other female relatives that did not work and had a group of other mothers that did not work. This then allowed for the mentality of having a village help raise your child. You could co-op babysitting, you could have your children play and socialize while you enjoyed some adult companionship. In today's society, families are separated distance wise, grandparents travel the world and most mothers and fathers are working. As a stay at home mom, I am in the minority.

I am thankful that I am able to be home and raise my children, to have home cooked meals for my family and somewhat take care of the housekeeping. I am overwhelmed with all there is to do out there, and all that people think I should do with my children. I am grateful that The Husband is an amazing man and brings me back to earth when I think I am failing as a parent and a wife. I do get lonely and I do long for adult conversation. Would I change this part of my life though, NEVER. I love my life and I love my family. Sometimes I just wish more people could have the same mentality as me, that more mothers could stay home and that there was a village to help raise my children.