Lessons & Learning from Debbie Phelps

Yesterday I did the following things-

I made plantable paper with the girls. That means we ground up paper, liquified it, added seeds and then let it dry back into paper.  You can plant it and in a few weeks you’ll have flowers.  They will hopefully make great teacher gifts.

I made my bed, changed diapers, saw the kids off to school, wrote a few blog posts and then drove into the city.

In the city I had a fabulous lunch at Rasika with some fantastic blogging friends like Sarah, Emily, Shannon, Amie, and Elena.  Debbie and Hilary Phelps were also there thanks to the fabulous women at the Century Council. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had spent the weekend reading Debbie Phelps book, ‘A Mother For All Seasons’ and being blown away by her positive attitude and devotion to her family.  I cannot imagine the sheer mileage alone that she put on her minivan driving her three kids Hilary, Whitney and Michael to swim practices each week.  Eesh!  Meeting her in person and chatting over divine Indian fare was even more amazing.  She inspired me to say the least and instilled in me the desire to never stop communicating with my girls.  Everything is a teachable moment.  Even when we think our kids know better and they make the wrong choices or decisions we can say, “OK. You know you did wrong. You knew better. How are you going to fix this?” It is so much common sense but as I look down the road at the future with these girls who will be middle school age before I know it, I need guidance like this from experienced mothers.  Don’t we all?

While we ate our delicious lunch we discussed topics like the fact that “eighth grade students who reported drinking in the past month declined 49% proportionally from 1991 to 2011. (NIDA, National Survey Results on Drug Use from the Monitoring the Future Study, 12/11).” That giving your child a taste of alcohol at a young age can open brain pathways that will allow them to acquire the taste for alcohol in the future.  There is a reason the drinking age is 21 and over and it has a lot to do with the fact that a person’s brain has not matured until they are between 20-25.

Remember your late teens and early 20’s?  That factoid right up there explains so much!

You can read more about our amazing lunch here.  I walked away from it feeling excited about the tools I now possessed about talking to my kids regarding the effects of alcohol and about making healthy decisions.  The Century Council has an incredible program, “ask, listen, learn” that I can’t wait to use and learn more about.  Go ahead, check their website out.  You will be glad you did.

And get excited for the Olympics!  After hearing Debbie and Hilary speak about past Olympic experiences I can’t wait to follow them both on Twitter as they attend the Summer 2012 Olympic games!

 

 

 

 

 

*Disclaimer:  I wasn’t asked to blog about this lunch but I did have my expenses paid for by TheMotherhood.com and was given a stipend to attend.