As I posted before, my mom was here and she did a Q&A with my book group about parenting and such. Here are a few the questions/answers:
Question/Comment: How did she balance? That’s a broad question…but how did she decide how to spend her time and how to be “all there”.
Answer: “I was a parent first. Some things had to happen later. With Crawford being gone anywhere from 14-20 days a month, I had to be the primary parent…in a sense I was a ‘single’ mom. So I had to have a mindset of I took care of everything. It became daunting at times, but it just had to be done. Now, when Crawford came home, I had to readjust my role. I often had to ‘debrief’ him on the household standings. But it was kind of easy because he wasnt gone 14-20 consecutively, so it was kind of routine. During the tough times I could always count on my friends. There is a group of us that have been friends since I first moved to Atlanta and we all had our children around the same time. So, it was helpful when we could just unload on each other and we still do to this day…bear one another’s burdens. That’s key in balancing it all. Also, keeping an open line of communication with your husband. Remember that you are not superwoman and you can’t do it all by yourself…
Question/Comment: Tell us the story about when Heather was younger again…
[here's the story: I can remember that one time that I came home, and I went food shopping. I had just been gone for 45 minutes to an hour. It was just a quick to the store, and I came back, and Crawford was in the living room. He was on one sofa, and she was on the other sofa, and she was crying her eyes out – this was last year, she was in high school. And he was, like, oh, like a whoopee dog, you know, he was, like, out. He was, like, "What do I do next?" You know, and I said, "What's the problem?" He was telling me, "Well, Heather says she doesn't have any clothes," you know? And I'm saying, "Uh-uh." So I put my groceries down and, you know, I said, "Heather, go get all your junk. Empty your closets and your drawers and bring them up here, and let's show Daddy what you don't have." Because he was about to give her some money that we didn't have, and she's – I made her bring all of her junk. Now, she had a lot of stuff – piles and mountains of clothes she didn't have.]…side note, biggest lesson I got was her saying to me, “You don’t treat MY husband that way.” To me, that put relationships in perspective. He was not MINE, he was HERS first, & she was protecting her husband. Go here to read the rest.
Answer: You have to watch these girls and protect their daddy’s from them. They learn to be manipulative very early and their daddy’s are mush when it comes to their daughters, so sometimes we have to step in. Manipulative little girls grow up to be manipulative adult women.
Question/Comment: I’m having such a problem with disciplining in public. I know that it is me being worried about what someone will think of me. Back in the day it was no big deal to discipline in public. Now, I’ll get locked up. How do I justify this in my head.
Answer: Think about it this way…either do it now while your children are young and it’s easier to teach or deal with unruly children when they get older. Trust me, when they get older it will be a lot harder to teach them how to act in pulic. The choice is yours. Besides, who’s the parent…who’s in control?
It was a good time of sharing. She also gave us all a book, “Moments Together for Couples” 
and two prayer cards: “Lifting My Children Through Prayer” 
& “Lifting My Husband Through Prayer” 
If you still have a question that you would like to ask, leave a comment. She’s still here, so I can ask and post her responses.
What are you doing? Are you doing anything? What are your thoughts about Lent anyway?
