Parents is plural

If there's one thing I've learned for sure in my 3 years and 2 months of being a parent, it is that parenting isn't all about the big life-altering decisions, it's the 1,000 little decisions you have to make every single day. 

You usually have a good bit of time to think about and worry over and plan the big decisions. But the little decisions have to be made in the spur of the moment, on the fly. 

Do I help him put on his jacket or let him do it by himself? I like helping, but is it more important to let him be independent? If I let him have a snack before dinner tonight, will he expect one every night? Should he be learning to use scissors? Should I buy scissors just in case?

Throw in all the books, articles, TV shows, blogs, message boards and advice-offering moms, and you can spend a whole lot of time questioning your own parenting skills.

Then throw in the fact that women seem to be such control freaks these days (myself included sometimes), that they don't trust their husbands to do anything, mainly because they're afraid that their husbands aren't going to do what needs to be done exactly the way they would do it. 

All of this means that the burden of parenting falls to one person, the worried, stressed-out, insecure mom.

Well, I call bull on that.

I'm not perfect, but I know my son better than anyone else on the face of this Earth. AND, my husband is a good father who is very involved with our son. He feeds him and bathes him and picks out his clothes and takes him to day care and does all the other things that parents have to do. And he may not do things the way I would do them, but if I ask him if he can give Biscuit a bath and get him dressed for bed, Biscuit will be bathed and ready for bed.

There's no reason for moms to put all the pressure on themselves. You can't do everything, nor should you try. But if you're going to ask for help, you have to back off and let things get done. In this case, the end does justify the means.

Parents is plural, and that means that two of us working to make things happen.

The hard part is accepting that things may not be done exactly the way you want them done. But in the long run, does it matter that you wouldn't have put that shirt with those pants? Or that you wanted the child to have milk and the dad gave him juice?

Jeff and I want Biscuit to be a confident, kind person who is happy in his life. We will gladly listen to any advice we're given. We'll read books or articles that we think are beneficial to what we're trying to accomplish. But in the end, we're going to trust our instincts and each other.

And I believe with all my heart that we can help Biscuit become the person he's supposed to be.