Parenting

As this has been a topic brought up recently, I thought I'd throw my $.02 into the pot.

It's hard. No doubt about it. It's filled with second-guessing yourself, wondering if you did or are doing the right thing. Not to mention it can also be filled with people looking in from the outside telling you what you're doing wrong or that there's no reason your child should be doing x or y because a, b or c applies. You look back on your life and compare your childhood to the one you're giving your child(ren) and hope the one you provide is comparable or better. You read about vaccines, toilet-training, breast-feeding v. bottle-feeding, early readers, late readers, allergies, accidents, accomplishments, chore charts, behavior charts, reward systems, teaching good manners and compare your children to those. You know that each child is different and you shouldn't compare but you do. You tear your hair out telling your children for the bizillion-twenty-first time to please not stand on the back of the couch because they'll fall and hurt themselves. You lose your patience when they don't behave as you know they are capable. Sometimes you even find yourself yelling because speaking in a rational tone has gotten you nowhere.

Parenting is what works for you. I can't say what will work for you, most days I can't say what works for me. But I do know that my children make me proud and that they do TRY to do what is expected of them and behave in an acceptable manner. They say please and thank you. They're polite to store workers (A even said "excuse me sir" when we passed in front of someone at the store). My hope is when we come to roadblocks that we can sit down and talk about different strategies that will help out in the situation. Now, knowing my kids this may not work. That's one thing I've learned from having a special needs child, give them the block, show them how it's done, and gradually help them obtain their goal.

I know I'm not a perfect parent. I don't even claim I'm a good parent (wife/daughter/sister/person) most days. But I do know that I'm trying my best and hopefully my kids won't be too scarred from it.

I do have to watch M closely now as she asked a checkout clerk at the store if his face had gotten stung (acne). Thank goodness he didn't hear her. Yes, we've hit the "embarrassing things your children say to strangers" phase of parenting. Anyone else want to share?