I have a 9 1/2 month old little dude who is basically me in male form. We have almost the same buttons that when pushed set off a huge chain reaction of chaos, until we both calm down. If I mention it as a joke to the few people I see on a weekly basis, mostly at church on Sundays, I get looks. I get looks of, "Why are you laughing about something like that?" or "That's not funny."
Personally, if I didn't laugh and make a joke about the absolute ridiculousness of it all, I'd be the most depressed person in the world. I get a little tired of other people passing judgment. You wouldn't believe the looks I got when people found out we'd be bottle feeding Preston. Yup, he's been weaned on formula folks. He's super healthy, very smart, and right where he should be at his age. That's exactly what the doctor told us yesterday at his well-baby appointment. The fact is that I ended up getting horrible mastitis (sp?) after Preston was born so even if I wanted to breast-feed, it wasn't really an option. Frankly, I'd rather keep my sanity than do what society demands of me, especially, since it would mean going crazy trying to do make something happen which physically wasn't going to.
There is a lot of pressure that comes along with being a parent. Everyone has an opinion about how you should raise your kid(s). Everyone wants to know when the next one will be coming along. I do a lot of smiling and nodding. Sometimes, the advise given is good, sometimes, I just think, "yup, not going to happen," but smile and nod politely anyway.
Here's my meter of being a good parent: 1) As long as our kid is well fed, dressed and has a roof over his head, we are good parents; 2) As long as our kid knows he's loved and can come to one or both of us with anything, we are good parents. That's pretty much it. The rest is up in the air. If he turns out to be a genius, awesome. If he's just an average kid, who treats everyone with respect and kindness, awesome. As long as he doesn't turn into some crazy dude, I think we can chalk the rest up as successful parenting.
Wow, in my ranting, I got completely off track. See, this is why I need to learn to just take a breath and be good to myself. I'm going to go do that right now, by doing my speed walking exercise on the tread-mill. It helps me blow off steam and makes me concentrate on something else, like keeping up with the tread-mill so I don't fall off the back of it. Oh, man that would really suck.
So to all those parents out there, current, soon-to-be, and future: don't worry about what everyone else tells you about parenting because you'll have to figure it out as you go anyway. And don't forget to apologize profusely to your parents for being a turd in the past, because what they say is true, it will come back to bite you in the ass someday. I speak from 9 1/2 months of experience. :)
