An Above Average Mom is about ordinary wisdom that adds up to care. Hazel doesn’t resist wisdom. She, like most of us, just doesn’t want to be made into the problem. In my experience, errors and consequences have never been the best time to offer teachable lessons disguised as “if only you had listened.”
Reflecting on my own inherited lessons, I can see that while they’re emotionally true, some of them came with rules that outlived their usefulness. Wisdom has a way of showing up much later. There’s a lot to inherit. And life, for all of us, is incredibly messy—not every problem is solved with shame and blame.
It’s my hope that An Above Average Mom does something rare: honoring stories and traditions without worshipping them. That’s been deep emotional work—looking back at what I’ve inherited without being trapped by it as an adult.
There’s said to be an emotional math to parenting.
Wisdom is honored.
Humans are human.
And love is the motive.
I’m not sure what kind of calculator you need to make that equation work, but I’m starting anyway.
I don’t have to become like my parent to carry their love.
And my child won’t have to become like me to know she was loved.
— That Friend Katie