It's Time We Go On A Hunt
I guess I know what my husband and I are going to talk about when he gets back.
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It’s Time We Go On A Hunt
My husband is ringing in the new year by hunting with our oldest daughter. This is her first time ever going with him to my dad’s ranch. I don’t know why we waited so long to let her go, especially since I had been going down to that land since I could crawl.
It feels like a rite of passage. She’s going to be walking the same land I did when I learned some of the most important lessons in life. There have been a lot of changes in our lives over the last year, so it feels good that there is a place our family can go that never changes. While my sisters and I have grown into adults with children of our own, the wild land, practically untouched by humanity, continues to thrive.
Still, her experience down there is entirely different from mine growing up. The hardships I faced hunting down there, without running water, indoor plumbing, etc., are nothing like the comfort she is experiencing now.
It made me think about something the girls asked me about the other day at dinner, about how to raise good children. We were sitting around the table laughing about when my husband and I met, which then turned into stories about the girls’ newborn and toddler years. I can’t remember which daughter asked, but one of them said, “How do you know if you are doing a good job as a mother?”
This is a pretty tricky question to answer. I think if you are a good mom, it’s almost a prerequisite to second-guess every decision you make. Still, there are outward signs that the hard work you are putting in is being rewarded.
But the truth is, my childhood was the biggest shaper in how I view life and motherhood. I knew from personal experience what kind of mother I wanted to be and what kind of children I wanted to raise. But many of these moments were due to hardships and adversities I had to overcome.