To feel like a very inadequate mother after reading this?

My mum didn't teach me anything academic at all, she was not an educated person. But she was a warm and loving mother, which is actually what is important.

Same here. A fond and very early memory with both my parents.
I think it is a refreshing thing to write about your mother - like she is a person with interests and you actually liked that.

I also don’t think we need to push others down to make ourselves feel better. We are different people, we can value different things and still have lovely relationships for it.

I haven’t read the book, but how do you get this from one paragraph? Introducing me to books was one of the most loving things my parents could have done for me. I cannot imagine my world without reading.

Meh. I take my small child to lots of historical sites, we travel a lot, and I take him to lots of cultural things like the theatre etc. Mostly because I like them admittedly. But I hope that what he will remember and value about me most are the more important things. That I loved and cherished him, that I always did my best for him, that I supported him, that I was firm but always kind and compassionate, that I worked hard to give him a good life and in doing so taught him the value of hard work, that I always believed in him, that I loved spending time with him.

I find it rather sad that considering this is about a child and their mothers relationship the only love there is the one instilled in reading
It could be referring to their 5th grade English teacher or a librarian that worked at the local library.

You should try Natalie Haynes, preferably on audiobook (I think she reads them herself). All the invisible women (and some not invisible but maligned) in the Classics. Odysseus, what are you doing claiming it's taking you 10 years to get home. I know what you're about - harpies my foot - floozies more like.

That’s an awful attitude to education. How do you expect children to be interested in and focused on learning if you signal to them that you don’t care about it?

Seriously? What a horribly narrow view of education.

Most parents when they have interest in that specific subject? but I don't think you need to translate it as having regular formal lectures about a subject 😂

You have books, kids read the book, you discuss the life of a certain King or Queen. Mythology and History, they study at school anyway, so you just have discussions around it, take them to relevant places or expositions if there happens to be one. You watch movies, or documentaries.

All this is quite organic, the same way as discussing the life of a famous tennis player.

Everyone has different interests, no one needs to feel inadequate because their interests are elsewhere, or their own child is only 8 and you have at least another decade to talk about things before they leave for uni!

You just don't see what YOU are teaching. I mean, most of the sport coaches I know have kids who excel in their specialist sport. (Some kids don't want to carry on eventually, that happens too), you just pass on your interest and knowledge.

There are far more interesting things in life to learn than the National Curriculum end of keystage objectives.

I see it as part of a parents job to also educate your child in history, literature, arts. They don’t learn this at school. It doesn’t have to be contradictory to showing love, having fun.

My mum's bookshelf gave me an education in historical drama/romance and bonkbusters at a formative age which was far more interesting to me at the time than classic literature.

Probably those Judith Krantz and Barbara Taylor Bradford tomes made me feel more confident to tackle more literary books later.

Nah parents are there to feed, clothe and nurtured children. Show them right from wrong.
Leave the teaching to the teachers 🤣

You are doing this is you are encouraging them to read.

My mum gave me Famous Five books which make me into an avid reader. I have since read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, The Bronte's so yes - my mother guided me into classic literature.

I cannot get interested in Greek mythology!

Meh, if my dd wants to learn about the classics or Chinese history, then she has the skills to educate herself.

When she looks back on her childhood, I hope that she will say that her mother made her feel safe and loved.

Arguably my parents did the same for me, by me going to boarding school aged 11, where I devoured the library and excelled academically. In reality, my grandmother paid for it because my father didn't believe in educating girls and was an emotionally stunted authoritarian. Only now he is dead am I building an adult relationship with my mum and finding out some of details of just how awful he was.

This makes no sense. Why on earth would I aspire to teaching my child mythology or about the classics? I mean, if that's something they'r einterested in, sure, I'll encourage and support that, but I dont 'judge my parenting skills by how much they know about the Greek pantheon.

I will judge my parenting skills by whether I have successfully taught my children to be successful, competent adults. Are they respectful of other people? Do they understand the need to work hard? Do they have confidence in themselves and will they back themselves and their ideas and opinions when they need to? Will they make good partners, employers, employees and parents? Are they interested in more than just their immediate world and surroundings? Have they learnt about being healthy and enjoying life. Do they have hobbies and interests? And solid friendships.

But really, what it boils down to, are they broadly good people who are happy with themselves and their lives.

It's a personal account, OP. Written for maximum emotional impact.

My son could also wax lyrical about me teaching him about Greek mythology and the lives of the English Kings and Queens upon my death if he wished.

In reality, I read him Greek myths from an Usborne children's book as bedtime stories and we sat and watched Horrible Histories together and sang the songs together.

I also taught him how to slide down the stairs in a sleeping bag and many other equally/more/less important life skills 🤷🏻‍♀️

Good parenting is about all the skills and knowledge we pass on to our children. The love and the little things along the way. The silliness and the fun.

Not a tick list of historical facts.

I totally empathise. DS has major AN and DD is looking more that way too. I have a PhD and looked forward to sharing the geeky things I liked at their ages.
But we are passing on really odd things I never would have thought of including lots of the music I liked at their age (or a bit older, they are young secondary ages) because I play it in the car and it's in kids' films. They both love a good run around in a National Trust garden and can be persuaded to look inside the house. DD has been to my orchestra rehearsals and can sing all the pieces though it's slow going teaching her the flute. Both DCs love cycling with me, a big part of my teenage and young adult years - I went bike hostelling with my DM aged 16 and can see us doing that too.

This Op. I always felt inadequate next to the sculptor Barabara Hepworth. She had a small child from her first marriage and triplets with her second but she managed to carry on sculpting. Turned out that the triplet babies lived in a hospital that trained paediatric nurses and their parents ( Barbara and the artist Ben Nicholson ) visited them at weekends . Don't beat yourself up. We'd all paint a golden picture if we were putting our parenting in a book.

Do you know what I wished my mum was like?

I wish that she’d listened to me and taken an interest in what I was doing instead of behaving as if I didn’t exist.
I wish that she’d had been comforting when I was upset or ill instead of ignoring me.
I wish that she’d been affectionate instead of cold.
I wish that when she said something I knew that it was true instead of knowing that she lies out of convenience or to manipulate.
I wish that she told others how proud she was of me and about good memories of my childhood instead of telling them the most embarrassing and shaming things that she can remember or make up.
I wish that she didn’t spend time trying to get me to look after my adult younger sister who has a family and a job of her own.
I wish that I could have a rational, adult conversation with her about her future without her saying that she’ll just kill herself (she’s done that for years btw.)

So, learning Greek mythology etc is completely superfluous to being a good mother in my eyes.

I think this is important! She'd been taught from preschool age that academia was more important than family and that's what this passage reflects.

So much this. I came from a family like this in a town where everyone is academic. Academic success and having intellectual pursuits were the only thing anyone cared about. I was lectured endlessly about various things my dad thought I should find interesting and zero thought was given to my emotional wellbeing.

I know loads of people from similar backgrounds and a striking percentage of them went badly off the rails in their teens. I can’t prove this but I have always suspected it was a toxic combination of high academic families (many of whom have undiagnosed neurodiversity) and who can only communicate with others by talking about their “specialist subject”. These people are often absolutely hopeless, sometimes to the point of neglect, with their children’s emotional health, because they don’t have the tools to manage it.

Its honestly not a life I would wish on anyone. Learn about Greek mythology by all means if it interests you (and anyone can read about it), but its no substitute for a present, engaged and loving parent.

Whilst probably a good read, this book has been written with an historical lense by a modern author. In no way can they capture the true spirit of that age. Just enjoy it as a piece of fiction and imagine yourself in the situation. Beyond that, I feel it has little relevance. You would be much better to look at the world around you and show your children the wonders of the place they live in, the church, graveyard, town hall, birds, animals, trees, plants etc. This will give them a sense of their reality. If you must delve into anything historical, perhaps take them to a National Trust property or museum near you. All these things can be built into their everyday and relevant to their experiences. And, you will, as they say, be making memories.

Don’t worry, OP. Our house is packed to the rafters with quality (and classic) literature. My kid has zero interest in any of it and almost never even opens a book. Instead, we wrangle horses, go shopping for unsuitable clothes and spend a lot of time together on the sofa watching TV of dubious quality…but we are together and she is loved beyond measure. So that’s a win. Just do what is right for your children, not what other people do for theirs.

That book though...stayed with me for a long time.