One of These Things is Not Like the Other
By Clare Ogle, an MHS houseparent
That’s the comment I heard from a dear friend after posting our student home’s Christmas photo. It’s the first year we have taken a photo with all of us in it. Plus, we added our son Titus this year, so it’s really the first year we photographed everyone together.
But my friend is right – one of the people in this photo is not like the others. She’s wearing a pink dress, but I’m not sure it means I don’t belong as the saying goes.
Being a housemom to boys is challenging, crazy, chaotic, exhausting, sometimes stinky and completely wonderful. I am so thankful to be placed with high school boys. I love each of them dearly and uniquely because they all bring something different to the table. I try my best to create memories with them that I think boys should have with their mom: baking cookies, decorating at Christmas, talking about girls, gardening, cooking, shopping for homecoming and picking out tuxes for prom. There are so many things I get to experience with them.
And that’s what I love about boys. They tend to be doers. We might not exchange thousands of words a day, but we get to bond by doing. We get to experience life together, and I get to teach my two children these same things right along with their “big brothers.”
Yes, I am different than the boys and, yes, I am the only female in a house of 15 males. Yes, it can be crazy but I love it!