What bamboo can teach us about adjusting to motherhood
Shifting our focus from career to home life is a little like moving from a high end boutique to the farm. Things move slower on the farm.
Imagine you designed and sold high end bamboo furniture. Your job was to create beautiful pieces. You impressed customers. You shipped product. You got things done.
Then, through a drastic company reorganization, you are assigned to growing bamboo for the next couple of years. You’ll work with the farmers.
“Bamboo farmers do their work faithfully… [but] There’s no public interest, not much feedback from management, certainly no accolades. ”
Important, unnoticed work
Now, we know the farmers’ job is important. Without them, there would be no bamboo. No fancy baskets or chairs.
But farming bamboo is a far cry from HGTV appearances, shipping product, and schmoozing in high end boutiques.
Bamboo farmers do their thing faithfully—water the plant, fertilize the soil—day after day after day. Yet nothing much seems to happen. There’s no public interest, not much feedback from management, certainly no accolades.
Is this starting to sound a little like adjusting to motherhood after a successful career?
How Parenting is a lot like farming bamboo
Going from professional life to parenthood is a lot like moving from the boutique to the tree farm. Things move slower on the farm.
Much slower.
Like bamboo farming, parenting is a long game. And rewards are a long time coming. This is not an efficient process. It’s not meant to be.
Bamboo plants are watered every day for over four years—nearly 1500 days!— with nothing to show for it.
After a whole lot of nothing, one day, the plant just starts growing! And it keeps going up and up—to the height of a six-story tall building (90’/ 30 m)—in just five weeks!
The bamboo plant’s crazy-fast growth happens in a period of about 5 weeks, after over 200 weeks of tending and watering. The roots have been developing underground 40x longer than the visible growth above ground.
Parenting is a lot like farming bamboo. You feed and water, comfort and instruct without seeing much change.
You are creating the conditions for growth. Results can be a long time coming.
Remember the long game
Like bamboo farming, parenting is a long game. And rewards are a long time coming. This is not an efficient process. It’s not meant to be.
So, keep feeding, training, shaping character, and tripping over toys.
The bamboo plant’s crazy-fast growth happens in a period of about 5 weeks, after over 200 weeks of tending and watering. The roots have been developing underground 40x longer than the visible growth above ground.
Watch a time-lapse video here
Most of the change happens below the surface, out of sight. But when those children sprout into tall, free standing adults, strong roots will help steady them through life’s storms.
It might not be as sexy as an HGTV appearance or a deal with a designer label, but the end result can take your breath away.
Not unlike a swaying six-storey tall bamboo. Reaching toward the sky.
Which part of motherhood are you finding difficult these days?
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