I have been talking to other mum’s recently and it has been slowly helping me to work myself into a frenzy of anxiety regarding the kids. In comparison to some of the mum’s I have been speaking to, I don’t seem to do as much with them and we seem to have gotten quite far behind in our Quran studies. My first reaction was to panic and start listing all the things we will now be doing.
Talking to a good friend over lunch though, helped me to put things in perspective. She told me about how much her mum used to do with her when she was small that they both enjoyed: playing together, baking cakes together, going to museum’s, movies and trips. But also just hanging out together in the park, watching an old movie together or spending the day in each others company. As a young teen her mother fell ill and could no longer do those things, but the two of them had no regrets and my friend didn’t feel that she missed out because her mum had done so much with her as a child. It also means that she is a lovely, sweet-natured person today with a wonderful relationship with her mum.
Her descriptions of her childhood helped me to calm down as they felt a bit more like the kind of parenting I could manage. So one of my goals is to do something fun with my children each day. Yesterday they had the play-dough out in the garden, today was painting, I have promised to take them painting in the park this weekend insh’Allah which they loved the idea of (I can sit with them and read or write for my journal, or maybe even learn to draw). I am going to have fun trying to think of other ideas insh’Allah.
That still left the issue with the children learning Quran. I still was determined to get that sorted. On the way home from 
work with hubby, I started moaning and put down my ultimatum: I can’t cope with teaching the kids anymore, they have to be in madrassah/classes by next Monday! He waited till I had stopped venting, and calmly told me that some brothers that had been working to arrange a property to start Quran classes for local children should be getting the keys this Friday! That stopped me in my tracks alhamdulilah, the place they have found is a former surgery about five minutes walk from my home. It remains to be seen whether they will be organized by Monday (you know Muslim’s are just known for being well-organized…), but I am feeling much more positive and very, very grateful right now.
Kids with the rainbow painting bag (plastic bag containing water colours, jar, brushes and card offcuts for them to paint). They can carry the bag into the garden when I am not there and they need something to do and easily throw everything back into it again.
By Umm Salihah