Is it bad that I want my husband and daughter to think I’m the best thing since sliced bread? I want my husband to say I’m the best wife ever and for my daughter to confirm that I’m the best mother ever! (I didn’t say I wanted to be crowned The World’s Best Wife and Mother. That wouldn’t be humble. I’m just talking about holding those titles in my home.)

Today, I took a serious hit in both of those categories. Lexi was so excited about having earned her first Daisy Scout badges. I told her that I’d sew them on for her. Pause…pause…”Uh, mommy? Do you even know how to sew?” Excuse me? Did she question my skills? “Mommy, do you even have what you need to sew my badges on?” Details, details...so maybe I don’t own a sewing machine…or thread…or a sewing needle. That’s beside the point! I wanted my daughter to believe I can do anything.

When I shared with my husband that I planned to sew Lexi’s badges on her apron, he also asked, “Honey, do you know how to do that? Wouldn’t it be easier if you asked so-and-so from church?” I couldn’t believe my ears. Even my husband didn’t believe I had the necessary skills to sew on a few badges. Okay…so maybe he had a point. Just two days before, he had found a hole in his suit, and it never dawned on me that I could fix it so he did ask one of the women at church.

He tried to reassure me by saying that I couldn’t be expected to do everything, but 100 years ago there would have been no question about who was darning her husband’s socks! And he’s saying all of this as he’s cooking dinner. Some of you would say, “Let it go. That’s what the feminist movement was all about- so that women didn’t have to feel as though they were bound by certain responsibilities.” I’m saddened, though, that I can’t do the simple tasks for my family. There’s one thing to feel as though I have no value above what I can do at home and another to realize I can’t add that value at home because I don’t have the skills.

Maybe if I had paid attention during Home Ec in middle school, I’d be a different wife and mother today. I loathed that class. There were only girls in that class and we spent time talking about how our role in life was to care for our husbands and children. We baked cookies. We sewed button eyes on puppets. We took an egg home to simulate motherhood. I burned the cookies. My puppet ended up with one eye and I broke my egg baby within 15 minutes of taking it home. I even got caught cheating on a Home Ec test because I just didn’t care! I was so much happier when I was able to enroll in shop class the following semester. Now making a leather tool belt-that’s practical!

But now I wish I had paid attention. I don’t want to be June Cleaver…although she was one classy lady. I just want to be me-wife, mother, and master sewer. Lexi might never want me to sew her prom dress, but I want to at least have the option of saying that I could. I need to start small…like sewing on Daisy Scout badges. How hard can it be?

How about you all? Which skills do you wish you possessed that seemed inherent for mothers 100 years ago?