Today is picture day at school. Argghhhh. Before I was a mom I quickly judged others parenting styles saying to myself, "I'm never gonna do that with my kids." I thought my kids would never go out of the house with a messy face or without clothes on that don't match. I have HIDEOUS elementary school photos of me where I cut my own bangs for the photo, big holes in the knees of my tights, and the list goes on. I have always harassed my mom about those photos saying, "Geesh, mom!! Could you have at least brushed my hair?" Yep, I WAS a judgemental pre-parent. Now that I have 3 of the little beasties (as my college pal Portia refers to them) of my own...there are many, many things I do that I thought I'd never do as a parent. (By the way mom, thanks for all you did for me. I would let Baylie cut her own bangs too if I had 5!)
1. Lying to the kids. Oh, gonna be honest all the time, right? Mmm hmm. Let's see, there's the lies because the truth would hurt ("You do have a lovely singing voice"); and the just plain self-serving stuff ("No, that isn't chocolate, it's mama's medicine.")
2. Yelling, throwing stuff, and generally losing it. Because I have a pretty firm grip on my temper, I believed I'd have this one in the bag. But who knew I could get so angry at my kids? There's nothing like a little sleep-deprivation and a ton of stress and some well-timed whining to help you see the darkest sides of your personality. Good times.
3. Feeding them crap food. I didn't think I'd ever simply wipe an apple off on my shirt after it fell to the floor and hand it back to the child, let alone serve boxed mac and cheese five nights in a row. And yet, my children have sampled all kinds of bad-for-you things on occasions when convenience trumped nutrition. Let's not even mention fast food.
4. Making hollow threats. I am a real firm believer in consistency, and I try to cash the checks I make with my mouth. But I've totally done this when I made a threat I didn't want to keep. "If you don't stop, we are leaving the pool right away." Yeah, except for the fact that we carpooled with two other people. And you aren't stopping the behavior. Ooops. Point goes to kid.
5. Talking about things I shouldn't in front of the child. Whether it's a frustrated moment of complaining about someone, or mentioning a friend's not-yet-public pregnancy to a friend with my kid in earshot, I've sometimes fooled myself into thinking they can't hear or won't understand. Ha. Children hear everything and understand twenty times more than I think. My kids are 5, 8, and 11, you'd think I would have gotten this by now. And when it leads to an awkward conversation when my child blurts out the tidbit later, I have no one to blame but myself. Parenting is grand like that.
So we will see what my kids school pictures look like this year! I know I won't be judging anyone elses, or their mom! Here is Chris and I in our 3rd grade school photos. (that was back when the school photographer used the same comb on every single student in the school and gave everyone lice. Now days- they just don't use combs...it's called "grunge") Chris is SO cute!
1. Lying to the kids. Oh, gonna be honest all the time, right? Mmm hmm. Let's see, there's the lies because the truth would hurt ("You do have a lovely singing voice"); and the just plain self-serving stuff ("No, that isn't chocolate, it's mama's medicine.")
2. Yelling, throwing stuff, and generally losing it. Because I have a pretty firm grip on my temper, I believed I'd have this one in the bag. But who knew I could get so angry at my kids? There's nothing like a little sleep-deprivation and a ton of stress and some well-timed whining to help you see the darkest sides of your personality. Good times.
3. Feeding them crap food. I didn't think I'd ever simply wipe an apple off on my shirt after it fell to the floor and hand it back to the child, let alone serve boxed mac and cheese five nights in a row. And yet, my children have sampled all kinds of bad-for-you things on occasions when convenience trumped nutrition. Let's not even mention fast food.
4. Making hollow threats. I am a real firm believer in consistency, and I try to cash the checks I make with my mouth. But I've totally done this when I made a threat I didn't want to keep. "If you don't stop, we are leaving the pool right away." Yeah, except for the fact that we carpooled with two other people. And you aren't stopping the behavior. Ooops. Point goes to kid.
5. Talking about things I shouldn't in front of the child. Whether it's a frustrated moment of complaining about someone, or mentioning a friend's not-yet-public pregnancy to a friend with my kid in earshot, I've sometimes fooled myself into thinking they can't hear or won't understand. Ha. Children hear everything and understand twenty times more than I think. My kids are 5, 8, and 11, you'd think I would have gotten this by now. And when it leads to an awkward conversation when my child blurts out the tidbit later, I have no one to blame but myself. Parenting is grand like that.
So we will see what my kids school pictures look like this year! I know I won't be judging anyone elses, or their mom! Here is Chris and I in our 3rd grade school photos. (that was back when the school photographer used the same comb on every single student in the school and gave everyone lice. Now days- they just don't use combs...it's called "grunge") Chris is SO cute!
Best. Post. Ever. I laughed so hard, especially about the "Mama's medicine" and brushing the apple on your shirt. I'm sooo guilty of all of the things you talked about and was such the judgemental pre-parent! Thanks for a great post.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Your picture is so cute!