Oh Parenthood

As a mother to a one and three year old, I must admit, my life is always full of excitement.  Some days are harder than others but all days are precious to me. Trust me when I say I have been on the bad end of a public temper tantrum when every mother who passes you says "oh honey we have all been there" or just gives consoling, pitying looks as they walk by.

The more I read about parenting, the more I felt like a failure. I decided to start taking things one day at a time. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by looking at the huge picture of raising a child I started dwelling on just today. I am no where near the finish line, yet I have seen some pretty remarkable headway.

My three year old is a strong willed, extremely intelligent little lady that is always ahead of her age in everything (which, trust me when I say, is not always a good thing). One can only imagine the kinds of fits we went through with her, starting the day that she discovered her own will. We have tried lots of different disciplining techniques but without true commitment and consistency we made no headway. My daily focus now is "training" instead of just discipline. we run through training exercises at home. We work hard before we leave the house so the kids are already well behaved by the time we go into public. I will save the training details for a later date but needless to say I am seeing results.

My kids are happier when I am not a frazzled mess and I am not a frazzled mess when they are behaving. Now when I tell my little angel to try some new food or pick up her toys I hear her sweet voice responds with "yes ma'am", oh how that is music to a mothers ears! When my daughter was two I took her to her first swimming class and the teacher told her to do something and she said "yes ma'am" the teacher looked at me and asked me with unbelief "what did she say" I told her and she said she had thought that's what she said but had never heard a two year old say that before. We went to visit my sister, who has three kids, who are also my daughters very best friends and when I said it was time to go she said "yes mama" I was so proud of her and felt so good about the impression I was leaving behind. It sure beats the pitying looks I used to get.

We still have our set backs but we are true to the commitment and as long as we stay consistent parenting is going to be the greatest joy in our lives. I will be a happy, put together, at peace mother who never has to raise her voice because we put the time and effort into training these precious little angels that God has entrusted us to raise and raise them well we shall!