The Poetry of Parenting Boys {Day 1}

The what?

Okay readers. Here’s the deal. When I rebranded I purposed to write more personal posts about our family and motherhood. And then it was summer, and then summer ended and then I was homeschooling. And there was always an excuse… yes, I’ve written a few personal pieces along the way, but I really wanted to do MORE right out of the gate.

After writing this past Monday’s post about the pull of motherhood, I really ached to do more of this kind of personal writing… then…

I happened to catch on Facebook this Write 31 Days challenge – I love a good challenge AND I am always catching these “31 days of blogging” events midway through the month. Now here was my chance to get on board on Day 1. So I am. Is it a little nutty? Maybe. Will I have fun? Probably. Will this series inspire and encourage you in your parenting journey? I hope so!

For thirty-one days I will write about…

Are you wondering… how did she come up with THAT topic and… what in the world will she have to say?

I do love poetry… I find a certain poetry in the rhythm of our days, watching them play, grow, learn. I think I’ll have a LOT to say! Boys, by their nature, are full of sound, energy, movement…

Would you think to put boys and poetry together? When I was a teacher of middle schoolers, I loved to introduce the poetry unit and watch all the boys in the class make a disgusted face. By the end of the unit, it was the boys asking for “more poetry lessons!” I love the juxtaposition of these two… I think they are not so disconnected – some of the world’s greatest poetry has been written by men!

Note: I’m not trying to comment on gender or sexism by choosing “parenting boys” or “boys and poetry” as my theme – just that being a mom of boys is my experience, and it certainly must be different than parenting two girls, or a boy/girl combo, or parenting an only child or four children, or eight!

My thought is to look through the lens of poetry – a genre I love to read and write and don’t do enough of either – to see and share my parenting experience with boys. Maybe I’ll write about how to get boys to LIKE poetry? or poetry I love to read to my boys?

Will I write every post as a poem? Probably not, but there may be more than a few posts-in-verse as we go along… we’ll see as the month develops.

I’m just going to let my children be my muse for 31 days… if you’ll hang in there with me on this venture! If you want to keep updated on the whole month, bookmark my Write 31 Days Challenge landing page here.

I’m also hoping I meet some new readers from other bloggers doing the Write 31 Days series, and I welcome you to our Happy Strong Home!