Continuing Education for Moms

I just received the non-credit course catalog from the Community College. These are the course not necessarily for a degree, but for preparing for college testing, developing work skills, and continuing education. Each semester when it comes, I flip through the pages to see what’s being offered so that I can continue to develop in my career, which is currently being a full-time mom. This includes, but is not limited to, grocery shopping; preparing three meals a day plus requested snacks; sorting laundry, clean from dirty, as well as colors from whites; volunteering as needed in three different schools, local and county PTAs, and the Girl Scouts to help out in the classroom, book fair, spiritwear sales, Teacher Appreciation Week, back-to-school open house, cookie sales, and county budget testimonies; chauffeuring to activities that range from drama class to Tae Kwan DO practice; and learning the rules of and cheering at basketball games, swim meets, and tennis matches. While managing the emotional growth of four little people and two adult persons.

Similar career paths include: Working mom, which has the added bonus of being able to go somewhere that allows you lunch breaks and bathroom breaks by yourself, and single mom, which gets to do all of this without another adult’s interference or assistance (depends on the other potential adult).

To assist me in my career development, I found the following courses in my college catalog.

Under Education, these courses were offered:

Building a Cooperative Classroom – Have you ever been in your child’s classroom and noticed how well mannered they act in front of their teacher? Sometimes I wonder if those are my children. Perhaps I have something to learn from the teachers.

Time Management for Families – the “experts” say that when you have good time management skills and specific routines, that children behave better and have less emotional turmoil. I’m assuming that they would recommend that we change at least some of our routines, perhaps the one where we tell the kids to go to bed, hear them running up and down the hall, put them to bed again, hear them running water in the bathroom, put them to bed again, hear them singing in bed, yell at them to go to sleep, then drink a glass of wine.

From the Human Resources section, there was:

Managing Chaos – four kids under the age of 11, what more needs to be said?

Dealing with Intense Emotions in Conflict Situations – Temper tantrums, screaming, shouting, pouting, crying, throwing things, and slamming doors are all outward signs of intense emotions. Perhaps the techniques used to diffuse these emotions in the working world will work in our home, too.

Now I need to go check if what’s left in the kids’ 529 Plans can be used for mom’s courses.