Mom taught us all she knew about managing a home, but aware of her own limitations, she also positioned us to learn from others. Where she saw gaps in her own gifting or skills, she sought out other women to help fill them in for us.
For example, Mom can sew a button, but she can’t make a dress or even an apron. So she asked a gifted lady in the church to give Nicole and me sewing lessons. She also enrolled us in several domestic classes offered through the county. These were fun memories! We especially loved the cooking classes where we collected recipes that are still family favorites (Minestrone Soup by a real Italian! Mmmmm…..).
Some of the classes also revealed ways in which I was not gifted. I’m thinking of the bow-making class here. A very nice lady did her best to teach us how to make beautiful bows to place on wrapped packages, but somehow mine never turned out! To this day, I have my sisters tie all the bows on my Christmas gifts (or put them in those handy gift bags with tissue paper!) and they teasingly ask, “weren’t you the one who took the bow-making class?”
But some of the homemaking lessons did stick (unlike my bows!)—in particular, I found a love of cooking through the classes that we took. I’m no gourmet, but was inspired by the skilled women I learned from.
The point is that by enlisting the help of others in your daughter’s homemaking training you can shore up areas where you are weak and help her see where she might need help as well. But more positively, training from others can reveal strengths you didn’t know she had, and most of all you can make a lot of fun memories!
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