Mom, PhD | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Mom, PhD | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laura Hawbaker
09/12/13
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I have a PhD. No, I haven’t suddenly become scholarly and no, I haven’t gone back to school. I guess you could say this was an honorary doctorate, awarded by my son Tom. He was arriving home from a two night stay in the hospital, and relieved to be out from under (in his opinion) the over-protective care of the medical professionals said, “Mom, you may not be a doctor or a nurse, but you have a PhD in me.”

I don’t think Tom even knew the meaning of the letters “PhD”. He knew the general idea; it was a degree given to someone who had completed years and years of schooling and was considered and expert in a particular field. I wasn’t so sure about the letters myself, but since I had just been awarded the degree I did a bit of research.

I found the “Ph” stands for philosophy and the “D” for doctor. According to Webster, a doctor is “a person who has earned one of the highest academic degrees conferred by a university.” And according to Wikipedia the philosophy part of the PhD doesn’t mean the specific field of philosophy, but comes from the broader sense of the word in accordance to its Greek meaning, “love of wisdom.”
So, I think Tom was conferring to me—his mom-- the highest degree in the wisdom of himself—my son.

If only it were that easy. If only I truly deserved the award.

This same child who generously awarded me this high degree, also had the tendency to bring out the worst in me. He could make me angry, impatient and disgusted. He could reduce me to yelling and pulling on his ear. He probably could have given me an F in mom class instead of a PhD!

Becoming expert Mom doesn’t happen in the world of academia; it happens in the real world of life. In a lot of ways you and your kids are both in the process of on- the- job -training. We learn from them, and hopefully they learn from us. As moms-in-training, we are blessed with many resources to help us-- our own mothers, the Bible and a plethora of books on the subject of child rearing, fellow moms, our husbands-- but ultimately the lessons of mom-hood are learned day by day around the kitchen table.

It is easy for moms to become discouraged and certain they are failing at all the lessons. Thankfully, kids are very resilient and very forgiving. Keep talking, keep listening, don’t be afraid to admit mistakes. Be there for them and like Job pray for them every day.

I don’t think my true title is Mom, PhD but rather, Mom,SL—mom still learning.

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