I sometimes have a love/hate relationship with parenting. That might sound bad… (*gasp*…What mother could hate anything about parenting??) …so humor me as I explain…
I think parenting is the greatest job in the world, but I’m also going to state that I think it’s the most difficult. My day job is teaching reading and English to sixth graders. There are days at home with my two boys that FAR exceed in difficulty even the most stressful middle school day. I wouldn’t trade being a parent for anything…but it doesn’t mean that I sometimes don’t want to hide in my room with a glass of wine and pretend that no one needs me for five minutes. When this first example listed below happened, the “love” part of it made me laugh out loud. It made me think about how I can almost always find something to love about the little things that drive me crazy.
Here is what I mean when I say I have a love/hate relationship with parenting…
- I hate when I’m planning on accomplishing things while the boys nap and one of them decides that he just doesn’t need a nap today.
- I love when it’s because my toddler is practicing his personalized rendition of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” over and over and over in his crib. (The volume increasing every five minutes or so, until 30 minutes later when I decide that the nap is a lost cause as his singing reached a happy fortissimo…)
- I hate waking up in the middle of the night to a crying child. I am a woman that places a high value on my sleep!
- I love that my simple presence in the middle of the night and my arms around my child can have the calming effect that my child needs to drift back off to dreamland.
- I hate when I tell my child the same direction over and over, feeling like he will never listen to me and that I must somehow be the worst mom on earth with the naughtiest child ever.
- I love when the broken record effect finally works and my son actually does what he’s supposed to without me telling him – YEAH!! Even my youngest has finally started to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ without being prompted. Not bad for someone who is two!
- I hate when my older son starts “parenting” my younger son by repeating everything that comes out of my mouth thirty seconds after I say it.
- I love that he is actually hearing what I say…maybe he will start to listen to some of it himself?
- I hate when I’m supposed to be serious and say that something is wrong or not appropriate, and all I want to do is laugh at the boys’ antics. In the picture above, my son had just figured out that he could climb on top of this table. The look on his face made me want to bust out laughing, but I tried to say seriously “We don’t climb on top of tables.” Oh, the things that come out of my mouth these days…
- I love that they make me want to laugh. I want my boys to have a sense of humor and adventurous personalities!
So I have come to the conclusion that I can find something to love about almost every aspect of parenting. Doesn’t mean that I don’t hate parts of it, or that parts don’t drive me crazy, but I can put a positive spin on it. Parenting is yet another example of the cliché quote “It’s all about attitude.” If you can’t laugh at yourself as a parent and put a positive spin on things, you might find yourself more frustrated than you need to be.
I hope that you are able to find something to love the next time you get annoyed with something you “hate”…turns out there may be a silver lining to that problem after all!
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