Let me say in this first sentence that I am nowhere near a perfect parent. I worry every single day about the craziest, tiniest, minutest little details of my son's life and how I'm affecting him.
But this evening, I was skimming through a parenting magazine I picked up at Biscuit's day care, and I found myself just shaking my head.
The article was about what might be causing your good kid to be in a bad mood. The six causes they came up with were changes in routine, overstimulation, exhaustion, hunger, growing pains and a feeling of unfairness or injustice. Each cause had a paragraph of explanation, but I didn't read anything more than the words I typed above. All I could think was, "Well, duh!"
I wonder if it's because I've been a parent for almost 4 years or whether it's because I'm twice as old as most of the moms of kids Biscuit's age.
Is it practice or life experience? I think it's a combination of both.
More and more, I'm trusting my gut instead of trying to figure out what other moms would do. Don't get me wrong, I still ask every mom I know when I'm facing a situation I'm unsure of. But the difference nowadays is that instead of trying to pick which mom's advise I'm going to follow, I consider all the advice, look for pieces of it that fit into my parenting style, then I do what I think is best for my boy.
Unfortunately, trusting my gut doesn't eliminate the worry, stress and doubt of raising a child. But that's when the life experience kicks in, and I realize it's okay to ask for help, I don't have to have all the answers and ultimately, Biscuit will grow into the person he's supposed to be.
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