I read this blog post from Emma Willer the other day, where she listed all the things she has done “wrong” as a parent.
http://wherewiller.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/parenting-ur-doin-it-wrong/
It made me think that now that I am writing this blog and putting myself out there as this “green-living-AP-sishly-natural-parent” will I get found out for the fraud that I am? Are the blog police looking through my trash right now? So in honor of Emma I am posting the following offenses that I have made in just the past week:
1. I let Little D watch a DVD in the back of my minivan while it idled, with the AC running (South Florida here people, record highs) and justified my actions by assuming that nursing Buds in the front seat was offsetting my carbon emissions.
2. I then went home and microwaved some Easy Mac for Little D’s lunch in a plastic container. If the movie watching doesn’t rot her brain then the yellow #5 tinged tumor I have created within her probably will.
3. She took one of her pretend naps where she proclaimed, “I just woke up!” when I went to get her out as if I hadn’t noticed that she’d been singing “I want to be a Tinkerbell” at the top of her lungs for the past hour. She then proceeded to fight with Buds over a metal popcorn container that she had decided was her new throne and he had deemed shiny. Screaming and whining ensured. I picked up the offending container, wallked out of the house and dumped it in the outside trash can-recycling be darned.
I may have yelled, too.
And glowered.
And felt just awful about it later.
The thing is, I’m not going to pretend like I’m one of those mamas who has it all together. I’m a mess and I’m constantly making mistakes and learning and then forgetting what I’ve learned. I feel that we as mamas do each other a disservice when we put up a false front, and pretend that we somehow have figured out how to make this raising a person thing work. We need to know that there are other parents out there struggling as hard or harder than we are. We need to learn from each other. After I beat myself up for yelling at Little D, I went back and explained that even though what she did was wrong, it was not nice of me to yell at her. I apologized, and we snuggled for a bit. Until Buds crawled over to pull up on my shoulder and play D’s head like a drum…
I know “all have sinned and fallen short,” etc. . . but I can’t believe you GLOWERED!
I may have only scowled. The Botox was still fresh.