A Letter To My Kiddos...

This letter was written to fulfill an english assignment. I was asked to interview someone over the age of sixty and write something to honor their life. I interviewed Grandma McLaws who I totally ador and admire! She is so amazing to me. She has gone through so much and is still such a wonderful strong women. I could have gone a million places with this paper, and I wanted to write several papers to do honor to her life. However I went with this one because I felt it was most applicable to me right now. So... What do you think?

Learning From The Past:
Letter one in a serious of letters written to my children

Dear Barbara and Baby John,

My dearest children I want you to know how much I love and adore you! You are my greatest blessing. I know I’m not a perfect mother but I seek for perfect ideals. I am writing you a series of letters to help you understand my ideals as a mother and my challenges so that you can be inspired to make good decisions when it is your turn to be a parent. For this first letter I want to introduce you to parenting through the eyes of many mothers. I have talked with your Great Grandmother Mclaws who is an amazing woman and got insight into her past. I hope to use her experiences as an example of how to be a great mother. We’ll begin with a story from her past.

“Mom, why do I have to rinse my hair in red apple vinegar, and Linda rinses hers in white vinegar” Says ten year old Sonja. Her Mother responds “because you’re a burnet, and your sister’s a blond.” Linda then pipes up, “but mom, why do we have to use vinegar at all? We already washed our hair with soap.” Gently her mother explains “well, vinegar makes your hair look shiny, it gets the soap residue out of your hair, and plus it’s healthy.” The year is 1949, Sonja Mclaws your Great Grandma (from now on referred to just as Grandma) was a ten year old girl and life was very different for her then it is for you. Sonja tells me “back then we used what we had and we came up with a lot of home remedies.”

That was over sixty two years ago. I’m amazed by the differences in the world you are growing up in versus the world grandma grew up in. I am hoping that by studying the world that grandma grew up in I can get a better sense of the ideals I want for you. While you are growing up in a new and exciting age, I don’t want you to miss out on the life that was enjoyed in the past. For example when I asked grandma if she was rebellious at all growing up she said “not openly, however my sister and I were told not to go into a bull pen that was by our house, but for three years we snuck into the bull pen and had picnics. The sweat was running down our face, and we were always on the lookout, but we loved those picnics.”

With you my sweet children, I don’t worry about you sneaking into a bull pen. Instead I worry about you getting abducted while I’m shopping, or while you are out playing. I worry if the neighbors house is a safe place for you to play, or if the people inside are sex predators. I worry if kids at school are going to offer you drugs, or teach you about things I don’t want you to learn. According to statistics recorded by the disaster center the population of Arizona has gone from about one million to about six million people in grandma’s life time, and with that growth crime has also grown. (Arizona Crime Index) The fears of yesteryear are something I wish I had, when compared to the fears I face today. My grandma referred to the time that she grew up as “the age of the innocence.” It was a time when you didn’t have to worry about predators, or your children learning about inappropriate things at school. It was a “happy time” as Grandma put it; a time when raising children was safe. This is something I want you to feel, a sense of security. Although the world is raging with fear, our home is where I am trying to build this security.

Grandma went on to explain how her grandmother ran their house. She said “everyone had chores, and everyone worked on everything together. We would work in the garden together, on the lawn, and cleaning the car” She further explained that her mother was very organized, and her motto was “There is a place for everything, everything has a place, and it better be in that place.” Great Grandma was also very good at living by a schedule, grandma explained that they “had dinner every night together at 5pm, and babies were in bed at 6pm”. Grandma values the work ethic that her mother taught her. She explains that “there was not a lazy bone in her body.” This kind of structure is the ideal I aim for with you. There are strong values that are taught when things can be done in an orderly manner and with consistent expectations, values that I want you to learn.
When I asked Grandma what she did for fun as a kid she explained that she would “roller skate, swim, go to the library, or the mountains, go to baseball games, run around outside, and just be a kid.” Some other more surprising things she included in her list of things she did for fun are “iron, cook, sew, I made my own clothes.” They did not have a TV in their home until she was in the 8th grade, and even then she did not watch very much, “because there was nothing on”. For entertainment occasionally they would listen to stories on the radio in the evening. In the 1950’s there was only about 10% of American homes with a television, while in the year 2000 about 98% of American homes had televisions.(Television Set Ownership) The amount of TV that the typical American watches is about six hours and forty seven minutes a day (Television Statistics). I do not want you to spend most of your awake time learning from the TV. I want you to enjoy the same activities as grandma. I don’t want you to lose out on the opportunity to just run around and be a kid. I admit that currently you are watching too much TV. However, you can expect this to change. This last week I canceled our Netflix subscription, so as to promote less TV watching. I find the chance to just be a kid and to run around, explore, play and be creative something that is very important for your healthy development. I hope when you are older you can say “yeah, we didn’t really watch that much TV growing up.”

My great grandparents also built a few family traditions for grandma to enjoy. Every Sunday they would bring them to church. Every summer they would go camping in the Greer Mountains. Every Christmas they would decorate and celebrate. Grandma brags about how her dad was “the first to put light bulbs on the outside Cyprus trees, he loved to decorate.” I too use traditions to draw our family closer together, and teach important lessons. The example of teaching with traditions has carried through the generations. It is something I hope to be able to instill in your hearts as something that is important and worthwhile. There are so many lessons I want to teach you, and morals I want you to learn. I am hoping to use family traditions as a way to teach you these things just as Great Grandma did for Grandma.

When Grandma was growing up there was a greater sense of using something until it was completely worn. Grandma recounted the following story. “It’s late in the evening, we are listening to the radio and mom is sitting in her sewing chair carefully unstitching the collar from dad’s Sunday shirt. She turns it around and with great care starts to re-stitch the collar back onto dad’s shirt. By the end of the radio transmission the collar is on and it looks clean, and dad has a “new” shirt to wear to church.” I didn’t realize what shirt collars were for until Grandma mentioned this. She also told the following story. “I have a brother that is 10 years younger than I am. When I had my first son my ten year old brother hand sewed him a sailor shirt and hat out of a sheet.” She also explained that today she wouldn’t take off a collar from a shirt; she would donate the shirt to goodwill, and go buy a new one on sale. No longer are the days of using an item until it is dead. We now live in the days of using until you’re sick of it, throwing it away, and getting something new. However, I want you to be aware of the process that something goes through to come to you. That process of making string, or sewing a shirt, and shipping it to a store where we purchase it. Perhaps then you will learn gratitude for the things that we have in great abundance and at an inexpensive price. I will try my best to teach you that appreciation as well as the frugality of the past.

Grandma is one of the most amazing women I know she has gone through many hardships and has come out triumphant. She raised six successful children, has been married for 54 years, she’s a breast cancer survivor, endured two non-medicated c-sections, and endured and grew through so much more. She is a woman who is constantly seeking to learn new things. She said “if I wanted to learn it I would just take a class, I took guitar lessons because I wanted to learn and computer lessons when we got a computer.” She told me her character has grown and developed because “when I fell down, I got back up.” She also said that “we learn line upon line; you don’t just become something instantly, because you’re becoming something right now.” I believe that one of the reasons Grandma has been able to go through so much and still be such an amazing woman is because of the strong foundation that was set for her in her early years by her loving parents. I hope that I can do the same for you, and that by studying the past I can help improve your future. I hope that this letter has inspired you a little bit and that you too can look to the past for ideas and ideals. I hope that you have the strength to make the choices that will be best for your children, as I hope I am making the choices that will be best for you! I love you so much! I hope these letters can show you my love and desires for you and your future.

Love always,
Esther McLaws

Works Cited
Mclaws, Sonja. Personal interview. September 27th 2011
“Arizona Crime Index Rates Per 100,000 Inhabitants.” The Disaster Center, copyright 1997- 2010. web. October 10,2007.

<http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/azcrime.htm>
“Television Set Ownership.” Television History, copyright 2001-2011, web, October 10,2007. <http://www.tvhistory.tv/TV-VCR-Remote-Cable_Ownership.JPG>
“Television Statistics.” Internet Resources to Accompany the Sourcebook for Teaching Science. Copyright, 2007. web. October 10th 2007. <http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html>