Another Pleasant Valley Sunday

Wow, I'm already heading into once-a-week blogging territory. If that.

Here is what I've learned in the past week: No matter what the exercise class, I will be the person in the class who is singled out for doing the exercise wrong. If you see the teacher getting up and heading toward the students, you just know she is heading toward me. It ranges from a gentle little nudge to correct my position, all the way to, "No, Shannon, drop the weight and practice your form! I don't want to see you with that weight for the rest of class! Or next week either!" Even in this class where I was younger than everybody else by at least 50 years, I was still the one doing it wrong.

One time I took a class about teaching dance to elementary students. The guy teaching the class had a rule that you praise individually, but correct as a group. So you would say, "Great job, Jane!" But if you saw one person doing the wrong thing, you might say, "Now, I see some people who need to bend their knees," even though it was really only one person (usually me) doing it wrong. I appreciate the exercise teachers who use this system.

Another thing I have decided is, I'm burned out on trying new things. I have heard that trying new things is good for building new brain synapses or something like that. I also think trying new things is essential when you have a fairly monotonous life, as most stay-at-home moms do. That's why I launched my campaign to do something I had never done before. But in the last two weeks, I have been the flower-arrangement student who doesn't know how to use a knife yet, the ice skater who can't stop, and the weight-lifter who has to drop the bar and practice her form. At some point in there I decided I needed to practice some activity that I was actually already good at.

What the hell am I good at, though? I'm sort of an amateur cook, but I at least got some praise for the baked goods I distributed to my friends this week. I'm better than average as a swimmer, or as my British friends at swimplan.com say, "quite good." But swimming is kind of boring.

When I think about it, one of the hardest things about not having a paying job is that there really is virtually no feedback on anything you do. I know Moxie says that you are the best parent for your child, but most of the time I feel like a big fat failure at that. It's pretty hard to rank your quality as a parent on any kind of objective scale. There are just too many variables, too many different value systems. I think I am good on providing enrichment for the child, but bad on discipline. I feel like I cave in too often, because sometimes after a day of battles over everything, I'm just too tired to fight anymore.

But on a happier note, I will leave you with my thought for the week:
I control my body. My body does not control me.