Parenting: It's a crapshoot
The hubs and I have been having an ongoing discussion lately: Does anyone really know ANYTHING about being a parent?
We're new to this job, relatively speaking. Our daughter is fifteen months old. Now - we've been through some pretty unusual parenting experiences already. She was born by emergency c-section when I was 27 weeks pregnant. We spent our first three months in hospital with her before we brought her home. It's been a whirlwind of appointments in four different cities across Southern Ontario - oh wait. They've just added another city for another specialist for yet another slot in my appointment book. In any case, none of my expectations about my birth plan or my maternity leave or my general ideas of motherhood have been anything close to how life is for us these days.
And so... a blog. I debated on this for a while. Why add yet another mommy-blog to the glut? Well, who knows. I guess I figured that there are other moms (and dads) out there like us who have realized that no matter how many books you read, or how many people you get advice from (always unsolicited, I might add), nothing goes the way you expect. That's why there are no experts - just parents who are slogging it out day after day, creating a new normal with each new milestone.
Parenting is a crapshoot. The stakes are high. Pony up.
So many mommy blogs are soppy Disneyfied versions of motherhood, which, from what I've seen, is actually akin to running a marathon for twenty years on no sleep while getting occasionally kicked in the face. Bring it Rowan!
ReplyDeleteReality...does anyone remember that word? What's real life???!!!
ReplyDeleteWe actually parent our children. We brought them into the world, so it’s our responsibility to teach them and take care of them. I'm not a big reader (Sarah can confirm this...what no pictures??? I'm out!), but the best parenting book I've ever read was called New Kid by Friday, by Kevin Lehman. It's common sense, and after reading you walk away thinking "yeah I could actually do a lot of what that book has to say!" I can't even count the number of times I've been at the end of my rope with my great kids and I’m in the bathroom reading this book for a quick reference and how I'm able to diffuse the situation right then and there. Al children are different and what works for one may not for the other. There's WAY TOO MUCH pressure on kids these days and parents are just plain absent in their lives.
I take my kids out for dates once a month during school hours. Sometimes they know, other times it's a surprise just because. Now I know I'm going to get blasted about how it must be nice to have such a flexible job to do that for my kids. Well, I work my butt off every day but my kids are number one, and taking the time now might just open a crack down the road when they don’t want to talk to me because it’s not ‘cool’! Parenting is NO easy task and anyone who says otherwise is either lying, or high on happy pills!
Keep up this blog... I love it!
Oh, and no judging my bad grammar...we all know it's bad!
ReplyDeleteHaha... Your grammar is just fine. Remember I'm wearing my mommy hat for this blog, not my teacher hat! Love Kevin Lehman. Remember when he told the story about getting his wife pregnant when they were 49 and 53?!?! Ahhhh..... Good memories!
ReplyDeleteAh yes and then looking at all the kids who were in shock saying "imagine a person my age "doing-it'"!
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