Parenting

It turns out to be a lot of work. Way more work than I had expected. It is like a full time job that you sleep with. And you dont even get to enjoy it sometimes because you are so exhausted. I am sure there are lots of people who don't feel that way; we call them psychopaths.

No, just kidding. I actually have this friend, who i love dearly, who just had her 7th baby. Her oldest graduated from high school in May and their youngest was born in July. That's 36 years of parenting, assuming they don't have another one. THIRTY SIX YEARS. It makes my 21 years look like nothin. And her kids are great; the parents are fun, and she homeschools. So while I do dearly love her and admire her, I also think that she clearly has some gene mutation that I missed out on.

Cuz I be done havin' babies. Despite Jack's protests. I am busy trying to figure out the best way to take care of the ones I already have. And trust me, it involves somebody else teaching them.

Anyway, I have this other friend, Amy, who is like me only better. Her kids are 4 & 6, and they come over every thursday to swim and play. The other day she was telling me that she was reading this book, Spiritual Parenting, and she made this comment, "...it's never appropriate to show anger to a child." So I tried to justify my anger...when they are in danger or causing danger when they are clearly disobeying direct orders, but Amy disagreed. She said that those situations deserve strong emotion, but is anger really the appropriate one? (We're talking about small children, remember) The idea (we were discussing) is that children need instruction; at this age, Jack needs me to teach him the right way to act, and yelling at him or talking at him through clenched teeth rarely accomplishes that goal.

In fact, most of the time I show anger, it is because a) what they are doing annoys the fool out of me, b) what they are doing reminds me that I should have stopped it about 20 minutes ago and therefore makes me feel like a bad parent, or c) causes me some kind of inconvenience. When I am in my good parenting zone, I dont feel anger in those times I mentioned in that last paragraph. Oh, to always be in the zone!

So I asked my father-in-law what he thought, since he is a wise man and knows everything. (So considerate of him to pass that on to my husband, too.) Anyway, Doc completely disagreed with the book and said that God shows anger to his children. But you know what, despite his vast wisdom and knowledge, I think I dont agree. I have been pondering this thought lately, and I really feel compelled to eliminate anger from the way I treat my children. They are little, and they dont deserve to be yelled at or to feel that icky feeling you get when someone is angry at you.


I mean look at those sweet faces! It makes me sad to think about them getting yelled at by anyone, especially by ME, the person who loves them the most in the whole world!

So that is my goal for this week. Be nice to the babies. I think this means I am gonna have to go to bed earlier. I am much nicer on a good night's sleep.