Tuesday, March 20, 2012
I am really excited to start this blog! Hoping it helps me figure out more about parenting, (effective and ineffective methods) as well as communicate my own personal experiences, with a lot of articles from Google to back up my theories.
Parenting was brought upon me unexpectedly at a young age, and while pregnant I really worried about how well I would do raising a child. Long story short, somehow some sort of "instincts" kicked in (who knew?) and I actually did a pretty damn good job, if I do say so myself. I realized that there was a hole in my life, something I was missing, and having children filled that void entirely. I have never been more committed or enamored with anything in my entire life, and I love every second of it.
After starting to try for my second, I realized that I spent a lot of time reading, researching, scouring articles and message boards and asking questions of other moms about different parenting styles and techniques. It became sort of an obsession. I have to say, I am really glad I did, because being knowledgeable about this stuff has really helped me grow, not just as a parent, but as a human. I have learned so much about patience, understanding, empathy and forgiveness. Things I knew nothing about before becoming a mother.
One day my husband and I were going on about one thing or another, and he made a point about me being the parenting "expert." I was confused, what did he mean, expert? Can anyone be an expert parent? Not really. I just enjoyed all the learning and the results I saw in my son. I asked him to explain, and he said, "You spend all your time learning how to be a better parent and interacting, teaching, playing with and celebrating our children. It is your life, your passion. If I ever have a parenting question, I look to you, because you've done the research and put in the work."
Wow. I was really blown away by that. I had never thought of it that way before. And it made me feel really good. Yes, I do spend most of my time trying to be the best parent with the happiest kids. But that's not the goal. To use an old cliche, its about the journey, not the destination. It's impossible to be perfect. We just learn from mistakes and take it day by day. Yes, I am hip to a lot of the yuppie things that we do for our children nowadays, but in 20 or 30 years, when my children have kids of their own, it will probably all be useless and dated. But isn't that the beauty of parenting, that there is no prize at the end we are all striving for? The idea and theory of parenting is constantly evolving, and there will always be things we don't know, things we should or shouldn't be doing, that we learn about later?? That's what makes it so interesting, I think.
Anyway, this is the start to my blog. I'm going to talk about many common parenting subjects....vaccines, "mom guilt" , discipline, communication, learning, play time and whatever else you could possibly think of. I welcome comments and responses from any and everyone!
Parenting was brought upon me unexpectedly at a young age, and while pregnant I really worried about how well I would do raising a child. Long story short, somehow some sort of "instincts" kicked in (who knew?) and I actually did a pretty damn good job, if I do say so myself. I realized that there was a hole in my life, something I was missing, and having children filled that void entirely. I have never been more committed or enamored with anything in my entire life, and I love every second of it.
After starting to try for my second, I realized that I spent a lot of time reading, researching, scouring articles and message boards and asking questions of other moms about different parenting styles and techniques. It became sort of an obsession. I have to say, I am really glad I did, because being knowledgeable about this stuff has really helped me grow, not just as a parent, but as a human. I have learned so much about patience, understanding, empathy and forgiveness. Things I knew nothing about before becoming a mother.
One day my husband and I were going on about one thing or another, and he made a point about me being the parenting "expert." I was confused, what did he mean, expert? Can anyone be an expert parent? Not really. I just enjoyed all the learning and the results I saw in my son. I asked him to explain, and he said, "You spend all your time learning how to be a better parent and interacting, teaching, playing with and celebrating our children. It is your life, your passion. If I ever have a parenting question, I look to you, because you've done the research and put in the work."
Wow. I was really blown away by that. I had never thought of it that way before. And it made me feel really good. Yes, I do spend most of my time trying to be the best parent with the happiest kids. But that's not the goal. To use an old cliche, its about the journey, not the destination. It's impossible to be perfect. We just learn from mistakes and take it day by day. Yes, I am hip to a lot of the yuppie things that we do for our children nowadays, but in 20 or 30 years, when my children have kids of their own, it will probably all be useless and dated. But isn't that the beauty of parenting, that there is no prize at the end we are all striving for? The idea and theory of parenting is constantly evolving, and there will always be things we don't know, things we should or shouldn't be doing, that we learn about later?? That's what makes it so interesting, I think.
Anyway, this is the start to my blog. I'm going to talk about many common parenting subjects....vaccines, "mom guilt" , discipline, communication, learning, play time and whatever else you could possibly think of. I welcome comments and responses from any and everyone!
