Future plans

These first meetings were going so well! The girls engaged in quality conversations, the leaders prepared thoughtful sessions -- we were officially up and running! Now that we felt secure and sure we wanted to continue our TAGG group for years to come, the moms needed to plan. The Type A personalities in our group (myself included -- love to update the family calendar and check off my lists!) desired a bit of a schedule for the year ahead.

An evening at a local Caribou provided a long table, cozy atmosphere and the time necessary to bounce around our ideas. Seven of us began the long list of topics we hoped to cover during our daughters' pre-adolescence years and beyond. The Mother-Daughter Project book proved an excellent resource during this conversation, as it contained a list of pertinent matters, along with reference materials, at the end of the book. Our brainstorming included:

• body changes
• managing money
• self-esteem
• fears/worries/anxiety (at home and at school)
• loving and caring for our bodies
• enhancing communication
• creating community 
• confronting consumerism
• fostering conversations
• conflict resolution (respectfulness and assertiveness)
• feelings, emotions and stress
• being safe and staying home alone
• modesty
• internet safety
• substances
• boundaries at school, home, sports
• volunteerism (maybe Feed My Starving Children?)

So many ideas! Decisions were hashed through as to which topics to focus on for the rest of the year, as well as who'd take the lead for each month. The willingness to jump in and tackle a topic astounded me. Each month had at least two names next to it -- women who would meet and create ways for us to help our girls navigate the world with their trusty moms (and friend-moms) at their sides. There were plenty of resources out there in libraries and online these days, and we all had books to share with each other. A few recommendations were the "Adding Assets Series" for kids, published by Free Spirit Publishing -- Doing and Being Your Best and Proud to be You. Virtually all the American Girl Library books (The Caring and Keeping of You, The Feelings Book, etc.) are wonderful and tactful. And accessible to the girls they are written for! (It helps to have teachers, a social worker and a children's librarian in the group, doesn't it?) We strove to keep these meetings as fun, fresh and unschool-like as possible, too.

Our line-up for the rest of the school year (through summer) looked like this:

January: Communication

February: Conflict Resolution

March: Anxiety and Fear

April: Body Talk (a pre-session before our fourth-graders had this talk at school)

(optional alternative activity for the younger girls?)

May: Revisit of Body Talk

June: Staying Home Alone

July: Volunteerism -- Feed My Starving Children

While gabbing, we reflected on how powerful this group would be for our girls. For them to know and trust so many peers and adults developed a strong sense of comfort. Bonding with other moms who have been at these meetings and seen, heard and accepted everyone's stories -- that sense of assurance that there were core people who had your back was immeasurable. And it didn't hurt that this group really knew how to have fun and be pretty goofy! (Lolo, I am talking to you, chica!) (o: