Recently I've been thinking or more accurately wishing that I'd prepared better for being a mom. I always knew I wanted to be a Mom when I grew up so why didn't I put more energy and effort in preparing for motherhood. Even as I entered college I knew my ultimate career goal was to be a mother. So why did I not study Early Childhood Education, or Family and Consumer Science, or Family Life and Human Development? Yes I looked it up these are real majors that colleges offer. Instead I did most of my GEs and then decided to study Biology because I realized how much I loved learning about the human body. I always said if I didn't want to be a stay at home mom so much I might have become a doctor. Biology opened up options for other good possible careers if my 1st choice didn't happen right away or ever. I didn't want people to think that all I wanted to do was be a mom (I mean I needed to find a man before that was an option anyways). Now that I have my 1st career choice I see that it was silly of me to be more focused on a "back up" plan then on preparing for motherhood. In my mind there was a stigma attached to majors like the ones listed above. Looking back I am guilty of promoting this stigma and I am more sorry for that then you know. Now I admire those who studied those fields, they where the smart and courageous ones. How did I let the "back up" plan become more important then the original plan. I wont go so far as to say I regret studying biology, because I don't. I loved it. I will say I regret not taking more then one developmental physiology class. Maybe I'd be a better mom, more prepared for the challenges I currently face everyday.
To be fair I probably did a fair amount of preparation for motherhood and am being a little hard on myself. I'm a great mom and I'm sure most parents have moments of feeling completely over whelmed from time to time weather they studied family relations or childhood development in college or not.
Now with all that in mind I was reminded of one of my strengths today. That even with 2 small kids I am often on time to things and well prepared with a packed diaper bag in toe. Yes sometimes I'm late and/or unprepared. I have strengths but I'm not perfect and neither are my children. So why is this a strength? Was is something I learned at college? This might surprise you but the answer is Yes. No, I didn't take a class on how to be prepared and on time with children in college. What I did was much harder then that, I played basketball.
What?
Here let me explain:
I remember hearing things like this beautiful quote here that I found using google search just now, and articles and speeches about how sports prepared kids for life. I believed it, but I never really thought that playing basketball was preparing me for motherhood. But it was!
Since my 1st season of basketball in the 8th grade it was drilled into me just how important being on time to practice was. "If your not 15 min early your late" if I had a dollar for every time I heard that I'd be rich. I remember going to a basketball game after I'd stopped playing and the only thing I remember is how amazing it was to walk into the gym just in time for tip off and not hours and hours earlier. Along with being on time it was also very important to have everything I needed. This Checklist here is no joke I was always making mental check list and checking my bag twice before leaving to be 15 min early to practice. I had nightmares of forgetting a shoe or my jersey. I always had extra socks and whatever else in my sports bag.
So I can tell someone I'll be somewhere at a set time and I can get there with a baby and a toddler in toe and when they have a blow out or pee there pants or need a snack or its cold and they want a coat or a blanket I will most likely have what I need to fix the problem. No I don't carry everything around all the time in a Marry Poppins bag, but I do have a diaper bag. Every time I leave the house I have spent some amount of time compiling what will be needed and what could be needed so I'm ready. My diaper bag looks like any other diaper bag I'm sure. And because basketball is a team sport I like to be able to help out my fellow moms. I love the feeling of being able to fix a problem either for my child or for someone else because I have a solution in my diaper bag. I like being that person who can save the day because I'm prepared, because I've been on the other end and It stinks and sometimes there Isn't someone like me around to help and that's the worst. So thank you basketball.
