We Are Those Parents...

Steve and I on a "parents-only trip" to Banff, Canada. 2006

You know the ones I am talking about, the parents who take their children to a fancy restaurant and let them watch DVDs at the table. For fear of becoming our parents we do everything the opposite of the way our parents raised us. You can hate us because we:

1. Go on vacation without our children. We are currently discussing a mom and dad trip to Disneyland...
2. We take our kids to restaurants and sit across the table from each other and text message each other. Sick- I know- but necessary to communicate without interruption.
3. We laugh at our kids. (I don't mean with them,I mean at them). After the election last week Jack told us that "Obama took Miss. Pippi." Not sure what the heck he was talking about he repeated himself "Obama took Miss. Pippi you know the RIVER!" Perfect sense -but so FUNNY!
4. We make our kids go to bed by 8pm so that we can watch what we want to watch on TV without interruption. There was a point in Jack's toddler days that he could sing the CSI theme song we watched so many episodes- another reason to hate us.
5. We down play our children's injuries. They cry, we tell them to suck it up and be a man (or woman). Mean? I know, but my kids don't over react at the slightest scratch like I have witness some children do.
6. We say things like "That costs a lot of money." and "we don't always get what we want". I know this is what our parents said to us but I never said that we hadn't turned into our parents, I just said that we fear becoming them.
7. We don't make our kids eat vegetables. I remember hating vegetables as a kid and being forced to eat them. Did I like that? NO! But at some point in adolescence or young adulthood I discovered that I liked the taste of them and never turned back. Trust me I will still not eat peas or stuffed peppers but that is my choice.

I have come to the conclusion that you parent the way that works for you. I am jealous of the parent who can ignore their child's bad behavior for the sake of not freaking out in front of an audience or the parent whose children will eat anything that is set in front of them. Trust me I really hate them! But if it works for you more power to you!

I think that the most important thing that I have discovered about parenting is that if the parents have to be in sync with each other, make time for each other, be the most important thing in each others lives , and they need remember the reason the kids are there in the first place... because the two of you fell in love and created them. As long as the entire family respects the bond of the parents everything else will work out fine.