Especially Our Own Children
I have a beautiful daughter Jade Elaine. She is a handful. At three years old she does things that most children do much later in life...IE: "Look Daddy I dyed My hair!" "Yeah Sweetie I see that, but the nice white carpet is also a nice shade of Auburn too." "The kitty did it!" This is just an example of things parents have to endure when raising children. Better yet..."I was just trying to give the kitty a bath." Don't ask...trust me LOL! I know my daughter is more energetic than most children her age. Not to blow my own horn she is smarter than most children twice her age as well. She has my brains...which in a way I wish she didn't. When she gets 15 will she be graduating High School and getting ready to start college as I did? How will that make me feel?
I worry about these things years in advance. I am sure most parents do. When I was at the hospital after she was born, I walked around with her singing to her. I was the proudest moment of my life. As a parent it is my duty to protect her and shelter her...maybe pass on some wisdom I have gleamed over the years. With your first child it is definitely trial and error. My wife and I have a great marriage, but unfortunately we are not going to have the chance to "get it right the second time" due to problems my wife had.
This makes it all the more important to get it right the first time. There are times that every parent feels as if they have failed. We seek advice from other parents, books, parenting classes and every other source we can possibly find hoping to get the answers. Why do we do this? We are unsure of ourselves, or we feel that our children are too much to handle...especially those of us that have hyperactive overly intelligent children. My advice to other parents...the books DON'T work...LOL ! The best thing we can offer our children is love, support and stability. If a parent ever questions, "Am I doing the right thing?" , question yourself, does it indeed feel like the right decision. Never rush into a decision hastily with children. We live in a time where it is not safe to rush into these things. Peers are bringing guns to school. (I Will probably Blog on this subject soon) There is more sex and violence on television and in the public world than there ever was, with the exception of Ancient Rome. We should never let our guard down.
Babysitting...know who you can trust and who you can't trust. I thought I could trust someone and learned after the fact that I couldn't. (See My first Article titled about me) What do we do when our three year old child opens the fridge and takes everything out? Let's go to the store and buy those child proofing latches for fridge doors.....They didn't work. Let's go buy those door knob covers that keep children out of rooms that they shouldn't be in....don't work....in my case it was hilarious. First my daughter took the covers apart and put them back on, hap hazardly of course....weeks later she realized that she could stick her little finger in the hole in front and open the door with out taking them off. Best solution....never let her out of my sight for a moment. It works....it does take away from free time but what is more important? She is of course.
Maybe this post doesn't seem like it has much of a point. The best point I can make is...treat your children with kindness and understanding. Avoid physical punishments as much as possible they can cause severe disorders in children. If you are the type to spank a child...never do it when you are upset....calm down first. Regardless of how old your children are....talk to them they do understand alot more than we give them credit for...even at three years of age. Communication makes all the difference in the world. No matter how bad it seems...it could be worse. Remember....when we get older it will be our children taking care of us more than likely....treat them better than how you want to be treated when you are older. Why do I say better? We gave them life and brought them into the world...they are our future and who honestly doesn't want a better tomorrow?
Regards To All,
Jade