Good Reads-When Did I Get Like This?

A while back, I did a ToT post about what I was reading. It really wasn't much at the time....the occasional blog by a friend, Pinterest ideas, or children's books. Well, I took the opportunity during our trip to Kansas to catch up on a little reading. I mean I had 12+ hours in the car to kill, right?

I started this book, by Amy Wilson, on the drive to Newton. Seriously, I was laughing out load and reading parts of this book to Nolan while he drove. Sorry, was that annoying honey? But really, there are so many things that are true for SO MANY moms. 

I think that when you are pregnant, especially with your first child, you have in your mind exactly how you are going to parent your child. Of course you're going to do this and you would never do that. Well, all of that changes when you are in the trenches with these little sweeties. And they are sweeties, but they also suck the life out of you sometimes. They cry, they poop, they want to eat all the time, they don't sleep, they put everything in their mouths, they spend all of your hard earned money. Are they worth it all? Are they worth all of the headaches, all of the worrying, all of the sleepless nights? A-B-S-O-L-U-T-E-L-Y! But, its just nice to hear that you're not alone in feeling overwhelmed. So many women make it look like parenting is a breeze. And you slowly come to the conclusion that in their day to day lives, it's not always this put together. I'm sure they have days when everyone in the house, including mom, is crying about something. 

And while you never want to see the lady in Target who's 3 year old is laying down on the floor throwing a fit because mom is refusing to buy her yet another cheap toy that has a Disney princess on it. But at the same time, it just reminds you that there are millions of other parents who are going through this too. Our children aren't perfect, they go through stages and they act out. They throw fits. And sometimes, as a parent, you are text book perfect at handling this and sometimes you have bad parenting moments. You're human. It's OK. As long as you aren't physically or emotionally hurting your child, it's ok. 

Georgia and I butt heads a lot. She is a strong willed little girl. Guess who else was a strong willed little girl 25ish years ago? Sometimes, I just get it all wrong. I just loose my cool with her. I HATE those times. I feel awful. But, after things have settled, she and I talk it out. I admit to her that I didn't do the right thing, but I also tell her why her behavior was so frustrating. We get each other a little bit....we connect. We get that we were both wrong. We make amends and patch things up. So many times, I think that parent's fly off the handle and they don't make that extra effort to patch things up with their little ones. I try to remember that she is going to learn from me. How I handle stressful situations is how she is going to handle them in the future. 

Most of all, I want my girls to remember their childhood fondly. And I don't want to look back and wish that I would have done most of it differently. Hopefully, we are headed in the right direction!