Want to know my current pet peeve? I mean besides the dude that moves me out of my swimming lane every morning? (Yes – I’m talking to you guy in the bad speedo and earplugs!). Parenting labels. PARENTING LABELS!
Helicopter; Free-Range; Tiger; Dolphin; Attachment; Cry-it-outs; Co-sleepers; Permissive; Uninvolved; SNOW PLOW PARENTS. (No – for real).
Everyday I hear a new godforsaken label. Why?
What kind of parent am I? The one with the living, breathing child.
Here’s what I know.
a. I panic like hell when my kid is running with a stick.
b. I let my kid walk to the next door neighbours house alone.
c. I enforce a strict bedtime Monday to Friday and don’t give a rats ass about weekends.
d. I have driven with my kid not in a booster seat in the back and with one in the front seat.
e. I almost strangled my kid when holding him down to get blood taken.
f. I have gone days without putting sunscreen on him.
g. I couldn’t tell you when I last washed his hair or his bed sheets or bath toys.
h. He knows I will follow through on a threat.
i. I make sure he reads to me or I read to him every night since he was a baby.
j. I’ll let him have pizza for breakfast and pancakes for dinner.
k. I hold my breath when he goes into the men’s washroom by himself.
l. He will get sent to his room if he is using bad manners or talking back.
My point? This is my list of how I parent. In the same way I’m not a fan of being labeled a ‘single mother’, I don’t want my parenting style to have a label. It is what it is. And I am what I am. A parent. Warts and all. I know my choices aren’t for everyone. Hell, I’ve seen my sister’s eyes roll so far back in their head, I thought they’d get lodged there. BUT she respects me enough to know that I’m doing what my gut tells me and that he’s made it relatively unscathed so far.
And let me tell you something. I respect what others are doing, no matter what way they choose to parent because this stuff is HARD. If you manage to get through it with a living, breathing, functioning kid, we should all agree that you’ve done good. That you tackled this parenting thing head on and came up swinging! And that you didn’t need a label or a group to fall into.
So next time someone says, ‘What kind of parent are you?’, smile and say proudly ‘the surviving one!’
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