Parenting

I don’t consider myself an expert on parenting. I make mistakes and my children make mistakes. BUT I get a little amazed when people are amazed with my kids, how they act, how they talk, when they sleep. This last weekend we were at a color guard competition for Sparkles it normally takes a good part of the day if not all day… Saturday was no exception we left the house at 1pm and didn’t get home until after 11pm. LONG day… Froggy doesn’t like to go but Miss Bee does, Sparkles has been competing for the last five years this is the beginning of season six, this has been part of our lives for a while and Miss Bee has been there since before birth. She sits for hours watching other teams, playing nicely with her little toys and books. I make sure we have enough treats and drinks. When she was really little it was very easy just to let her nurse and no one even noticed. When she got a little older potty training was a little fun, bathrooms weren’t always close by but we managed and she did great! The other parents that have been doing this as long as I have love to bring little snacks (and they ask me first) or occupy her with little stuff ooh’ing and ahaa’ing over her drawings, books, or toys… we do this for seven weekends, eight competitions the last one being an all weekend thing. Miss Bee always is mostly well behaved and generally calm and self contained.

This particular weekend was nothing out of the norm but one of the other families brought their two year old with them, they don’t normally bring her and let me tell you she was a small terror. She crawled over everyone and wanted everything and was just so tired that she really just couldn’t see straight… I am not delusional enough to think that my children have never acted that way BUT when they have I am hoping that I have disciplined them, taken them out of the situation, and/or apologized for their behavior. This parent didn’t do half of that about the second time that the baby screamed and cried they finally took her out of the gym. When she finally fell asleep and she only slept for about 30 min. Miss Bee crawled into my lap and put her head on my shoulder and fell asleep and slept for about 1.5 hours…slept through Sacramento State Drum Line performance. Did I say that these comps are done inside in a basketball gym? Miss Bee can sleep anywhere and through anything for that matter so can Froggy and Sparkles.

I don’t think that I demand too much from my kids but I do require them to behave in many situations. Another child (not with our group) was running around the floor in-between comps. The teams have 10 mins to set up, perform, and tear down. Some of them have props and floors, ect. This child started to run around the floor as another team was starting to set up and she nearly tripped the student that was setting up, it was a little dangerous not only for the team setting up but for the child and the parent did nothing… and didn’t stop the kid from running around again it took a line judge to go over and talk to the parent and probably let them know that it was an unsafe situation and to keep the child off the floor. We couldn’t believe that it took a line judge to talk to the parent… it astounded us to know end. I then made the comment that “I would kill my child if they acted like that” I was then told that my children would act like that because they have a better sense of responsibility or etiquette. That I have a better sense of responsibility or etiquette I never really thought of it that way… The PARENT needs to have the sense of responsibility/ etiquette. How can we teach the child if the parent has no clue, how do we expect the child to know if the parent doesn’t?

I have had many compliments about my kids everything from ‘they are false advertising’ to ‘I wish there were more kids on the plane like yours’. I am always surprised on the compliments they are always unexpected sometimes in my brain I am remembering the times that they didn’t do their chores or talked back to me instead of listening, It gives me a sense of pride to know that even if I think that they can be rotten children and deserving of a weeks worth of restriction that other people think them well behaved human beings.

I don’t know if I expect/demand too much from them or if the rest of the world doesn’t expect/demand enough from everyone else. I do know that I am proud of my children. I am happy that I can take them traveling, dinner out (fancy), to parks, to social gatherings, to weddings and they know how to act and most of the time will do it without embarrassing the heck out of me!! The only thing that I can think of that I do with my kids is I bring them places… always have, always will. I have often said “have baby will travel” they have slept on hay bales, in cars, at soccer games, and during drum comps. I also believe that if they don’t experience HOW can they know how to act? You have to teach them so that they know.

I am proud of my kids and I am in constant amazement that they are as graceful, thoughtful, caring, helpful and wonderful as they are…