Dear Kitty,

The puppy chewed on the arm of one of my favorite chairs.

The 6 year old boy broke my change jar on the brick patio.

I tried to surprise the kids with muffins for breakfast and I got paid back with a mountain of crumbs that resembles the seed that Willie E. Coyote would put out to trap the Road Runner.

…and its only 10am.

This mom/step-mom/queen of the household bit is tiring and frustrating at best.

I got a Parenting magazine in the mail yesterday which had a headline of the front that made me immediately flip to the page in hopes that I could indeed raise “independent and happy children with just these few sentences…”

Sadly none of the sentences I use consistently are conducive to raising happy independent children. No where was it written..

• If you don’t stop, I am going to sell you to the next roaming band of gypsies that come through here
• You are giving me a headache that has your name all over it and healthcare won’t acknowledge you as a condition so STOP
• Shut the door for the millionth time. Am I speaking Latin or something?
• You know, since I gave birth to you; I can technically clone you.

I can’t believe I actually read an opinion by someone I don’t know, who doesn’t know my children; on how to raise them.

But isn’t that we are conditioned to do as humans? Constantly seek out answers? Finding approval if we meet the status quo of what others say?

Why can’t we be conditioned to find approval when we find something that works uniquely for us? Why can’t we be satisfied when we hold true to our own soul’s compass?

There is always a war going on concerning how to raise our kids. It’s fought passionately by self-proclaimed groups who have their children’s best interest at heart. Allegedly.

I breastfed. I bottle fed.

I co-slept. I let them cry it out.

I have gone “granola” and I have fed them Fruity Pebbles.

My kids, regardless of what phase of mothering they weathered through with me are all the same.

Temperamental, easily distracted, defiant….you know…they are all kids in every definition.

I don’t need a magazine to tell me what is the perfect way to handle my kids. I base my actions on a kid by kid basis and we are doing fine.

Perfectly imperfect

….and frankly….I like it this way.

Categories: Diary entry June

Tags: diary entry, I gave birth to you I can clone you, queen of the household, raising happy children, raising independent children