I’ve been a parent for 17 months now and about the only way I
can sum it up is that it’s been one hell of an adventure. The good days now drastically outnumber the bad
and I’ve gotten MUCH better at deciding which battles really need to be fought
(and won), tuning out the background noise and not cursing out loud.
I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll never win a mother of the year award and it stems directly from my lack of maternal instinct. As with most of my short comings, I’m willing to own up to my parenting limitations. Just this week, I admitted to the preschool teachers that throngs of small children scared the daylights out of me and that wouldn’t do their job for all the money in the world. That announcement was the preface to explain why I hadn’t signed up to help chaperone a field trip, but I was willing to do about anything else they needed help with, as long as they didn’t leave me alone with the rampaging herd. They laughed and said that wine helps (at the end of the day – I assume) and suggested I sign up to bake for the cake raffles.
There are however, a few of my short coming that I refuse to own because nobody told me I was supposed to. We were very fortunate to find the most amazing babysitter that lives just down the street. She is a bright, articulate, responsible, charming young lady that adores our son and vice versa. Her mother has even joined the Dennis fan club and has helped out a few times when her daughter had better things to do. We’d hired the sitter last weekend and while we were out, we bumped in to the sitter’s mom and she mentioned that she had just called to check on them and make sure they were getting along okay. I had the foresight to smile and say “Oh thanks, I hadn’t done that – yet.” On the inside I was thinking - CRAP, nobody told me I was supposed to check in with the sitter! I was shaped by the business world, where you hire good people qualified to do the job then stay out of their way while work.
I’ve accepted the fact that I’ll never win a mother of the year award and it stems directly from my lack of maternal instinct. As with most of my short comings, I’m willing to own up to my parenting limitations. Just this week, I admitted to the preschool teachers that throngs of small children scared the daylights out of me and that wouldn’t do their job for all the money in the world. That announcement was the preface to explain why I hadn’t signed up to help chaperone a field trip, but I was willing to do about anything else they needed help with, as long as they didn’t leave me alone with the rampaging herd. They laughed and said that wine helps (at the end of the day – I assume) and suggested I sign up to bake for the cake raffles.
There are however, a few of my short coming that I refuse to own because nobody told me I was supposed to. We were very fortunate to find the most amazing babysitter that lives just down the street. She is a bright, articulate, responsible, charming young lady that adores our son and vice versa. Her mother has even joined the Dennis fan club and has helped out a few times when her daughter had better things to do. We’d hired the sitter last weekend and while we were out, we bumped in to the sitter’s mom and she mentioned that she had just called to check on them and make sure they were getting along okay. I had the foresight to smile and say “Oh thanks, I hadn’t done that – yet.” On the inside I was thinking - CRAP, nobody told me I was supposed to check in with the sitter! I was shaped by the business world, where you hire good people qualified to do the job then stay out of their way while work.
I just have to wonder what else I haven’t been told!
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