I've been contemplating a sentence in a book totally unrelated to Roman history concerning the role of the mother in educating her children. By shaping a child when he or she is young, a mother shapes that child's interpretation on later learning and on experiences gained. This makes me wonder how "powerless" the mother really was in ancient Rome.

Certainly, the mother was the person hanging around the house all day observing what the children were doing. (Or at least having the opportunity to do so.)

It seems more obvious that the mother would be the primary instructor of the daughters. I'm thinking about something my own mother did with us when we were young. We had to sit on a stool in the kitchen and read to her from our books whenever she was working on a meal. We then were required to explain to her what prose meant, and discuss the book with her. She got tired of "run Puff run" rather quickly and switched us to the Reader's Digest. It seemed like a lot of fun at the time. Who knew she was forcing us to learn how to read?

So all this makes me wonder, what DID Roman mothers discuss with their daughters during all those interminable weaving sessions?