Not The Perfect Parents

Let me preface this by saying that my wife and I do not consider ourselves the perfect parents, nor do we consider our children perfect. But my hair is gray and we have survived nursery, adolescence and are just about done with college; so maybe it’s time to share an ounce of wisdom. You can take it or leave it, because that’s what people do. —-We had enough folks brag on our kids in the child-rearing days to suggest that they were well-behaved, and a pleasure to be around. Did we have anything to do with that as parents? We didn’t have a master plan or anything like that, but just in case we had something to do with it; I thought it would be good to share something. Since I want to help the growing number of parents that seem to struggle with this whole parenting thing, I was trying to narrow down what I would say to a new parent if they would remotely be interested in advice. ( I have to be honest I really cleaned that up. What I was going to say wasn’t very nice.)—- We were not regimented or legalistic in our approach to parenting, but we were consistent. And if I can narrow it down to one thing, it is this: be the parent from the beginning and stay the parent until they have children, and then become the grandparent. Be the parent. Start out that way. If you start out that way (it is a mind-set), you’ll never lose it. The day you lose it, it’s hard to make a comeback. Yes, all children are different. Some little bundles of joy are more challenging than others. Some have to be disciplined in different ways than the others. We figured that out by trial and error. But never, ever give in. Stay consistent through the various ages of child-development in your child-rearing, and it will be all they know. Aside from the war of the worlds known as the “terrible twos”, they likely won’t challenge again until thirteen. During the “terrible twos” they are pushing you hard for the head of the house position. Don’t cave in! Stay strong. At thirteen they’ll make another big push, but you show them once again that you are the parent; and you don’t care what other parents let there kids do. You aren’t being mean. You are showing your children boundaries. More importantly, you are showing them that you love them. Oh yeah, when they turn fourteen, don’t act like you’re fourteen, because that can bring in a whole set of other problems. —-If you really want more of my humble opinion on parenting, holla. We, the people, really want your children to be a pleasure to be around.