Sharon Gebhardt-Williams
PAWLP Summer Institute Multigenre Project
NOTES
01
Three Proposals
Three Proposals is a narrative that had been in the back of my mind for a while. It tells the true story of my insecurities over marrying a man with kids. That choice was, by far, the most difficult of my life. I have never struggled over anything in my life as much as I did about marrying Sam. The reason was not that I did not love him; I was head over heels. The problem for me was taking on the responsibility of three human beings who would take their ques on how to live their life from how I lived mine. HUGE pressure there! Another difficulty was my own insecurities over my relationship with the kids compared to that they had with their mother. I was lucky, Lisa never came back into their lives physically, and the phone calls stopped after about 10 years. Three Proposals is a very happy memory for me since it was the beginning of my beautiful family.
02
Letter to the CEO of Disney
This persuasive piece was born during my research of stepparenting in the 21st Century. While researching, I was looking for examples for kids of good stepparenting role models. If you google "examples of good stepmoms in children's literature", it returns results such as "10 Brutal Truths About Being a Stepmom" and "What Divorced Moms Should Know About Stepmoms". I was disheartened. So, I thought why not reach out to the biggest conglomerate of anything related to children, and ask them to make a difference?
03
Two Perspectives
Two Perspectives is based upon my relationship with my husband's ex wife, Lisa. It is an accurate reflection of conversations we would have when she would call to speak with her kids 23 years ago. She stopped calling after about 10 years, and we did not hear from her again until last year. I think time stood still for her. When I spoke with her a year ago, she was asking questions about thid kids as if they were still little. All three are adults now. The idea that Lisa has held onto the images of them as children saddens me as a mother. I would not have wanted to miss one minute of the time spent watching them grow into the wonderful people they are today.
04
A Stepmom's Fairytale
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I wrote the A Stepmom's Fairytale after our poetry session in the summer institute. I was detemined to write a triolet that had meaning and depth as it related to my multigenre topic. It is about how I would literally pray at some points when my oldest three were teenagers for there to be peace in the house. Getting the three of them through their teen years was a constant struggle! They were always pulling ridiculous stunts and bucking the system. I longed for a bit of serentity in my life, and I think I was able to portray that with this poem.
05
Review of the Movie Stepmom
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I came up with the idea of a movie review after becoming discouraged with the lack of positive stepmother role models. I had remembered watching Stepmom a few months after it came out, and I thought it portrayed Julia Roberts in the role of the stepmother figure, Isabel, in a positive light. This is still the case, the movie does not cast Isabel as evil nor wicked, but it also does not make her appear to be very intuitive when it comes to common sense parenting. I did not realize this fact when I watched it the first time years ago, but did notice it when I watched it just the other day.
The movie does a nice job of portraying the interal struggles both mom and stepmom have over their roles in the lives of the children. For that reason, the movie had merit and was worthy of a second viewing. I also found myself responding to it in a different way as an experienced biological mom this time around.
06
The True Story of Cinderella
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The True Story of Cinderella was the most fun to write. I always use The True Story of The Three Little Pigs as a mentor text in my classroom. On many occasions, I will have my students write their own new perception of Snow White after we finish reading the mentor text. I have never gone this indepth with the work, and found it to be an enjoyable process. I think my passion about how stepmoms end up getting a bad wrap and blamed for everything comes through. I used to tell my kids when they were younger and would blame me for EVERTHING, "I know, I sunk the Titanic!"
07
Visual Components
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The visuals I used on my Introduction/Dear Reader section are the ones that speak to me the most. They are those of my family, my reasons for being. I take great pride in my oldest daughters and the mothers they have become since they learned from watching me. I also take pride in all of my children's accomplishments. I feel that their father and I have invested so much into helping them to see their full potential, and now that they are adults, we get to see just how wonderfully that investment is paying off. The pictures are a representation of this pride.
I also included a short infographic I created of the three all time most villionous stepmothers from Disney movies. I was surprised to find that that the list wasn't longer.
08
The Middle of the Night
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The Middle of the Night is an actual converstaion I had with my husband's ex-wife. It was very emotional for me to write that piece. I hadn't realized just how much anxiety, guilt and depression I had wrapped up in my conversations with Lisa. She walked out on the kids one day, leaving for work and never coming home. But, every time she called, she would make me feel guilty as if I had played some sort of part in the ending of her marriage. I knew in my conscious mind that the reality in which Lisa lived was not the one everyone else lived in. However, I still was experiencing self doubt, and this doubt would open the door to the guilt I would feel that if she were able to get sober, maybe they could have worked it out?
For this project, I read a book called, But I'm not a wicked STEPMOTHER! Secrets of Successful Blended Families. It is a spiritual book on stepparenting, and validated my feelings over being a stepmom. I realized that what I had experienced through Lisa's abusive, alcoholic rants caused me to be an even more anxiety ridden mom. It is a classic case of "If I had known then what I know now."