Have you ever met someone and felt like you could talk for hours and hours, and especially if you lived closer, would be great friends? Well, that’s what I experienced in this conversation I had with Maggie Graham, a homeschooling mom of 11 children that today range from 24 to 3-years-old. In addition to teaching her children, Maggie is also a life coach, home management strategist, and parenting strategist with a passion to equip and encourage other parents, especially moms, to accomplish their goals in a practical way.
She asked if she could interview me for her online event for homeschool moms since I homeschooled off and on when my kids were at home. However, in the interview, we ended up talking about so many things in addition to homeschooling — motherhood, navigating the perfection infection, developing strong relationships with our kids, handling imperfection in marriage, and learning to let go. This conversation was for EVERY MOM!
After the event was over, I reached out to see if I could share our conversation with you, and she said yes! I’m so grateful that you get to be a part of this conversation and, if you are a mom in any season of life, I look forward to hearing what stands out most to you!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Maggie Graham’s Website
- Connect with Maggie on Instagram and Facebook
- [Book] Professionalizing Motherhood
- Maggie’s Equipped to Homeschool Course
- 3 Types of Dates Every Marriage Needs | Episode 54
- As a thank you for listening, get your 3 free eBooks!
My Key Takeaways:
1) Comparing our insides to others’ outsides leads to discontentment. This is one we can find ourselves doing a lot. Can you think of the person that looks like they have it all together on Instagram or Facebook? The truth is we have no idea what that person’s life is like beyond the small part that we see online. We rarely share photos of our house piled high with laundry and the kitchen a mess after cooking dinner. We need to remind ourselves that we have no idea what other people are going through. Comparing our insides to others’ outsides only fuels discontentment, disillusionment, and even depression.
2) Be careful not to parent out of embarrassment. As parents, we all are probably guilty of this at one time or another. Our child puts on mismatching clothes, they start acting out at the grocery store, or they have a meltdown at church. It’s hard not to feel embarrassed by our kids sometimes, but we need to guard against parenting that is motivated by that embarrassment. Instead, we should ask ourselves, “Where am I looking to find my identity? Is it from Jesus or from how my child behaves?”
3) A marriage cannot survive on the back burner. You need to invest in it! It’s easy to be child-focused, especially if you have young kids right now. Kids naturally take a lot of attention and energy. But we need to save some of that energy to be proactively investing in your marriage. A good first step is to take the time today to put a recurring date night on the calendar (and keep it!). (Just shared more about that on our last podcast!)
About Maggie:
Maggie Graham is a homeschooling mom of 11 children that today range from 24 to three years old. In addition to teaching her children, Maggie is also a life coach, home management strategist, and parenting strategist. Her passion is to equip and encourage other parents, and especially moms, to accomplish their goals in a practical way. Whether you have one kid, four kids, or more, Maggie can help turn your home around!
