Smart Mom

Written for Momaha.com

This past week my six year-old son Coulter, attended Camp Invention. First up on the lesson books? Atoms. As parents we were encouraged to follow through at home with the question of the day which was “What three parts make up an atom?”


“Uhm. I don’t remember,” Coulter said. “O.K.,” I replied. “Can you think of just one?” Later, after reminding him how much money we had spent on this camp he decided he knew the answer. Atoms were made up of gas, liquid and solid.

I’m guessing this is where most moms (or at least those of us who never took chemistry and aren’t even sure if chemistry is the class in which atoms are covered,) would probably have confirmed this, say, with one click of the internet. But my son is usually a good listener and besides, gas, liquid and solid sounded pretty smart to me.

The next morning we reviewed. Gas, liquid and solid we all repeated. I signed him in and walked out, and that’s when I overheard a dad say “O.K., son, now remember, it’s protons, electrons and neutrons.” Well, darn.

I’m not a science mom and given the fact that Coulter’s favorite part of camp has been singing about the inventor of diapers to the tune of Justin Beiber’s “Baby,” I’m going to take a wild hunch and say he’s probably not a science kid. He’s also doesn’t get too excited about experimenting. On crazy outfit day, he chose a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt with a picture of a baseball player. Yes, mixing baseball and basketball is really crazy. But, who knows maybe he could be a science kid. Maybe it’s in there and I just haven’t been smart enough to bring it out.

Yesterday, thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I discovered that a dear college friend was visiting Nebraska. We met for dinner and caught up on 15 years of marriage and jobs and parenting. She home schools her children and when I asked if they had school during the summer she replied, “Yes, but it’s different. We do a lot of science because it’s so easy to get outside and discover nature.” “Oh, sure,” I replied. “So easy.” (What? The grass turns green. The flowers bloom. Bees pollinate. There’s more?)

No, I’m not a science Mom. I’m also not a history Mom. I once told Coulter who was looking at a history book that George Washington was our 1st president, which obviously is true but after a closer look at the picture, the lesson of the day should have been about sailing the ocean blue in something-something 42.

Some days I struggle with the fact that I’m not a super-smart mom, but I am a loving mom; I’m a passionate, supportive, cheerleader, hug you till you can’t breathe mom, and I’m also a mom who’s smart enough to know that even if the greatest take-away from Camp Invention 2011 has less to do with atoms and more to do with diapers, it was still money well spent.