Cribsheet is glad to present another series of essays from Kate Hopper’s “Mother Words” class at the Loft. Check back with us each day this week to read perspectives and insights from brand new to well seasoned mothers. We start out this week with Mother Words instructor, Kate Hopper sharing what she has learned from her classes.

I began teaching “Mother Words” at the Loft Literary Center almost two years because it was a good fit. I was working on a book about the premature birth of my daughter, and I wanted to create a space for other women to write about motherhood. I was also interested in the politics of that kind of writing—how we, as a society, view motherhood literature.

I’m still interested in the politics of writing motherhood, still become incensed when a critic lumps all motherhood literature together into the derogatory categories of “momoir” or “chick lit,” but I’ve realized that teaching “Mother Words” has affected me on a personal level as well an intellectual one. It has changed how I parent and how I think about parenting.

All the women who have taken “Mother Words” have had rich and varied experiences, as mothers and as people. What they bring to the class, and to me, are the different ways they have dealt with issues of identity, loss and longing, neurosis and fear, ambivalence and joy. They write pieces filled with humor and heartbreak. They write about the transformative aspects of motherhood. And I have found that I am not only inspired by their writing—the words they actually string together on a page to make sentences—but also by their strength and sense of humor.

I find myself laughing more with my daughter, not taking for granted her health or happiness. I find myself letting go of the little things—whether she goes to bed late a couple of nights in a row or only eats French fries when we go out to dinner or whether her interests seem more “girly” than mine did at her age.

There are so many opinions out there about what makes a good mother, and women put themselves under a great deal of pressure to be perfect parents, but I’ve learned through my students that there isn’t a formula for great mothering.

I will continue to learn from my students as they continue to learn from me, and along the way, I hope we will all contribute to breaking down the walls of the motherhood box and open our minds to different ways of parenting.

Kate Hopper is a Minneapolis writer, teacher and editor. She blogs regularly at Mother Words: Mothers Who Write, and can be reached through her website.

(To read more essays from Kate’s previous class click on the Mother Words essay category to the right.)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 10:24 am and is filed under Main, Mother Words Essays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.