Thanks for your support!!!

My little individuals in all their mischievous glory!!

It is so great to see all of your comments on my PERFECT PARENTING Post. It makes me feel like I am not the only frayed mom out there. I think it is really important to share the real stuff that goes on not only with the adoption but with parenting in general. I worry that too often there is a misconception that as parents we sit our children down and explain in a loving voice that xxxx is what we expect and that our children thoughtfully ponder our request and then comply without question. Unfortunately parenting is so far from that it is a joke. Our children are individuals that have their own minds and their own wills. They are little people that will someday grow into opinionated adults like we are. They are going to fight and push the limits and do things they shouldn't and argue and so on and so on--- BUT-- that is what makes them unique little people that we get the privilege of imparting our wisdom and values on. We get to mold these little ones and while we (or at least I) am far from perfect, we can display the model of unconditional love show them that we screw up but get the opportunity to make it right. We get to show our kids that we, as mommy and daddy, make mistakes but we can correct our mistakes and make things OK again. I think that is an amazingly powerful gift that we get to give our children. They get to see us screw up and make things right. They get to see in real life how to suck it up and say we are sorry for what we have done. That adults are not above what we teach them to do every day "say your sorry". When I feel like I am the worst mom in the world, I have to remember that it is a learning opportunity for my kids. It makes me feel good to know there are others out there that ride the same parenting roller coaster that I do. I know I sometimes wish that my kids would listen better and would be the perfect kids (whatever that means) but if they were, they would not get to learn the valuable lessons that we as parents inadvertently get to teach them-- The lessons I get to OFTEN teach them :)