Okay, so it’s not that I find myself to be a bad parent. Not at all. It’s just as far as certain parenting things, I fail miserably. Like, it would never occur to me to teach LG her numbers or colors or letters. One day she came home and she could count 1-10 and rest assured, it definitely wasn’t because of me. Chris, on the other hand, is really good about that stuff. He asks LG to identify colors when we’re out and about or reading a book or whatever. Again, just not something I think about. Green is green, everyone knows that, no need to actually learn it, right?
One thing I am good at, and allow me to toot my own horn, is real life skills. LG helps me cook (our most recent lesson was learning the difference between a *pinch* of salt and an *entire two-year-old-handful*), we fold laundry, we (I) keep a running commentary on what we’re doing. “We’re cleaning the counters!”, “We’re unloading the dishwasher!”, etc. With skills like that, who the hell really needs to know that green isn’t red, am I right?
But in all seriousness, I used to get down on myself for not being a “good” (in the traditional sense) mom. In the sense that, when I was home with LG, try as I might, I just couldn’t do the craft stuff, we didn’t practice letters or numbers (again, didn’t really occur to me), and we watched a lot of cartoons. But then I realized I’m good at other stuff and that’s totally fine with me.
Parenting has a way of making you feel really great about yourself (LG asks me for a “huggy” (not the diaper) every morning) and also really terrible (basically between the hours of 5pm and 7pm every day) so I think it’s important to remember the good things every once in awhile.
What are YOU good at (parenting or otherwise)? Toot your own horn! Pat yourself on the back!
I have patience. I can get frustrated, fed up, exhausted, etc., but it takes me far longer to lose my patience than most. (And even longer to complain about things.)
I’m like Chris, too, and ask questions while trying to teach about letters, numbers, colors, etc. He knew his ABCs at 18 months old, and I’m proud of that.
But I’m not crafty and we watch lots of TV too. I don’t have the gene to be able to entertain/teach them 24-7, which is why I send them to daycare and I go to work. Better for all involved. 🙂
Bad: Songs. AH MAH GAH I hate children’s songs.
Good: The real life stuff you mentioned above, but also I think I am good at games. Made-up ones and actual purchased ones.
I’m pretty good at jokes! Parenting is ehhhhhh.
I’m not sure. But so far, I think I’m pretty patient. I’ve had my challenges, but I’ve never actually been mad at my son. I know it’s not his fault he’s fussy, cause, ya know, he’s a baby.