10 Things I Learned from My German Mother

Genevieve Wolf
2 min readNov 15, 2020

1. The only acceptable mess to have in your home is a neat stack of books. Or articles. Or magazines. Actually, almost every surface in your home should be jam-packed — but not overflowing — with reading material.

2. Life is often contradictory. ACTUALLY the only acceptable mess is in your junk drawer. You know that drawer I mean. Every home needs one — the catchall spot for miscellaneous odds and ends that you will need…someday.

3. Life isn’t fair.

4. Life is basically all a competition.

5. …soooo never, ever show favoritism among your siblings. Or parents. Or children. Especially your children. No matter how hard they tease you.

6. Your purse should always hold extra cash, cough drops, hand lotion, Tylenol, tissues, lip balm, lipstick, Mentos mints, pen and small notebook, checkbook, nail file. If you do not carry all of these things, are you even a woman?

7. The most important thing to remember about makeup is that its purpose is to enhance your natural beauty… not create beauty. And if you can’t confidently leave your home without wearing makeup, what does that say about your appreciation for yourself as God’s creation/work of art?

8. Use your wedding china. And your grandmother’s china. Don’t leave it on the shelf to gather dust and be used “someday” — aka never. Use it on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Mother’s Day, birthdays, Sundays… and then guilt your children about it so terribly that they will only handle said china super duper carefully.

9. Make to-do lists constantly. For everything.

10. You can do whatever you want with your life. As long as you do what God wants you to do with your life. So [insert long explanation of what God requires of Christians]. So really your choices are limited. But do whatever you want with your life…

--

--

Genevieve Wolf

Just out here writing about daily life, humor, God, and Catholicism.