This Mum codes
Thismumcodes is both my new Mumsnet username and my new way of life. Makers Academy is renowned for being both life changing and not for the faint hearted. In our first week, we were asked to raise our hand if we had children. Out of a cohort of 39 people, mine was the lone hand in the air. This did give me pause to wonder whether my choice to do this was insane. A couple of weeks into the course, I’m still wondering, but it’s not putting me off.
To say this course takes over your life is an understatement. Not only am I living and breathing code, I am dreaming it too. A few nights ago I was in that strange half-asleep state where your dreams get muddled up with reality. My lively toddler had demanded to come into our bed, with no intention of doing any sleeping. In my in-between state I was dreaming that she was supposed to be in an Array. But something must have been very wrong with my code. If she was successfully encapsulated in the Array, surely she should not be able to throw her milk bottle at me, or lie on my face. These were edge cases that I had not tested for.
The Single Responsibility Principle is beautiful in it’s pure simplicity — the idea that each unit of code (eg. a Class or method) should only be responsible for one thing. It’s a principle I would love to apply to my own life. Being able to spend the next three months solely responsible for learning to code, without having to worry about two small people and their needs, would be amazing. But, life is not code, which is probably a good thing!
When I see the impact of my choice to do this course on my daughters, and my amazing family whose support is enabling me to do it, of course I feel some guilt. However, it’s an important part of my parenting philosophy to model the behaviour you would want to see in your kids. Would I want them to grow up always putting other people’s needs before their own, and not having the courage to follow their dreams? Of course not! So although this is not easy for any of us, I hope that one day my girls will understand and will forgive me, because one day they will be following dreams of their own.
