Some (or most) days, I feel like I’m stuck in a merry go round of just CONSTANTLY picking up toys. I always get so annoyed when I am walking around toys, following the “walking path” that my kids had left me. I feel like I need 8 arms as I walk to keep it clean. I spend my days just picking up a trail being made everyday instead of actually cleaning my house. By the end of the day, my house looks like just as it did and I feel so unaccomplished. Sink full of dishes, toys shoved in the corners of the house where I don’t walk, piles of clothes, tables full of just “stuff”, shower tub covered in toys, hand prints/markings on the walls, stepstools/chairs in the middle of the room and of course the occasional “dissappearing” of my bathroom products! I have gotten so frustrated with all of this because I just want a clean house. A house where everything has a place. Well, having kids (especially little ones), this is just not the case.
One night, after the kids went to bed, I stood in my kitchen and thought to myself, “Fuck this shit. Im not doing this tonight.” I then walked into my living room. Standing in the middle of an array of toys and looking at the yogurt hand prints on my TV ….I thought to myself, “Mann, I am going to miss this one day.” It hit me. The toys, the mess, the non stop trails…this stage of my kids will be gone one day and I really am going to miss it. My mindset shifted. Who cares about the dishes, who cares if the toys are all over the place, who cares if I have markings on my walls. All of this makes my house a home. A home lived in. A home loved in. A home that my kids have free range to be themselves in. That is all I want for my kids. A safe, free place for them to bloom into wonderful human beings.
I don’t need to read all these parenting hack books, baby books, how to parent a certain way, listen to others’ opinions or love to certain standards. I will parent in a way that feeds and molds to my kids. If it feels right, then run with it. There is no right or wrong in parenting your child. Everyone is going to have their opinions on how to mold kids. But the fact of the matter is, every child is different. Just like how adults have different opinions, so do kids. Who are we to dictate on how they think or what they want to do? Why can’t we teach them a little of everything and let them find their own path? Why do they have to be snuffed to only specific education and standards?
When it comes to parenting, you do it in a way that feels right to you. Show them love, relationships, kindness, continuous education to EVERYTHING (even if you don’t like it), different ways of life! You never know what your child will be interested in and it all starts with you. Be the role model for your child and screw all the standards that are set for us.
Don’t fall into the pressures of other peoples’ parenting!