Let Me Tell You How To Parent Your Kids…
Feb 6th, 2007 by Lezhai
Is it just me or are the non-parents of the world blessed with the amazing knowledge on how to be the perfect parent? They have the perfect answer for everything. You don’t even have to ask them, they are on hand to offer up their amazing advice with out the slightest inkling it is needed, or WANTED for that matter. Now my sister is my best friend, but before she was blessed with a child of her own she was always quipping in about how I should parent. I would laugh and say “wait until you have kids”. Of course she never believed that parenting your OWN child and parenting someone else’s could be completely different.
Fast forward and now she is the loving parent of her own two year old. Now those of us that are parents know what it is like to be the parent of a two year old. I think we all know what comes next. Hehe The frantic calls saying “He keeps screaming at me and I don’t know what he wants” “How do I get him to stay in bed?” “He keeps taking off his diaper and running around the house naked!?!?” Now if I was a mean sister I would bring up the fact that just a few years earlier she had all the answers and why not just open her book of ‘Know It All” and fix the kid. No, instead, the nice sister that I am, Laughs hysterically and says “Ah, welcome to motherhood”.
Now not to be left out of this equation are those that have experienced motherhood and figure they have all the answers. Insert mother-in-law. Now I actually get along with my MIL very well, but she is not exempt from this rant. It amazes me the talents and abilities of this woman. Her favorite thing to remind me of is that my two year old is not potty trained yet. “You know, I had all my kids out of diapers by the time they were walking” Yea, Right! I may have slightly exaggerated but you get the point. Fortunately for our relationship she thinks my kids are wonderful! Phew! But apart from all the advice poured upon me she can’t help me solve one small problem,
“How do I keep my 2 year old from getting up in the middle of the night and reek havoc all over the house!!!!”
Hahaha – this is so true! I’ll leave names out in case they visit the site, but they likely know who they are! You should have more kids, you shouldn’t wait to have kids, you should do such-and-such with your kids. I’ve heard it all, but when they have their own kids, they get their own personal dose of reality. Ahh, sweet lady justice.
You ask:
“How do I keep my 2 year old from getting up in the middle of the night and reek havoc all over the house!!!!â€
DUCT TAPE!! Works like a charm…. ;)
This is all soooo true. And I am glad you bring up some interesting points about the “Know it all’s” of parenting when they don’t have their own. My sister-in-law was the QUEEN of this one. She didn’t have children for the first 4 years of her marriage and she thought that it was her business to tell me how to raise my three kids. Well, poetic justice is just the greatest because NOW, she has two children – a one year old and a two year old!! SWEET!! Her kids are the cutest little things and I love to SPOIL them rotten and send them home to their mom!! I see her kids doing the same things my kids a few years back and I don’t say a word. I just give my SIL a look and she knows I am thinking…sweet justice!!!!!
Ha, thanks Ali, haven’t tried that one….YET! JK
“Only the one then?” I am asked by someone who has not had any children, who then goes on to tell me how “selfish” it is just to have one child not knowing the full medical story of how lucky I was to have one!