This guy is honest. That's the first thing I enjoyed about the article. And he says what most parents aren't willing to say, for fear of being judged. Here is a small sample of what he writes:
If you are a parent of small children, you know that there are moments of spectacular delight, and you can’t believe you get to be around these little people. But let me be the one who says the following things out loud:
You are not a terrible parent if you can’t figure out a way for your children to eat as healthy as your friend’s children do. She’s obviously using a bizarre and probably illegal form of hypnotism.
You are not a terrible parent if you yell at your kids sometimes. You have little dictators living in your house. If someone else talked to you like that, they’d be put in prison.
You are not a terrible parent if you can’t figure out how to calmly give them appropriate consequences in real time for every single act of terrorism that they so creatively devise.
You are not a terrible parent if you’d rather be at work.
You are not a terrible parent if you just can’t wait for them to go to bed.
You are not a terrible parent if the sound of their voices sometimes makes you want to drink and never stop.
You’re not a terrible parent.
You’re an actual parent with limits. You cannot do it all.
Again, I encourage you to read his full article.
I, for one, am not worried about being judged for what I say on this blog. It's my blog, my feelings, my thoughts and my child. If someone doesn't like it, then they don't have to. I'm okay with that. But I know others don't feel the same way and worry way too much about "appearing" like the perfect parent.
I'll be the first to say, I'm not the perfect parent. I'm far from it. But I do try hard. I have my own thoughts, morals and goals with raising my daughter and together with my wife, we talk about everything in order to come up with the perfect plan for our family. Notice I said "our family." Honestly, that's who we're working so hard for; our family. I know that we are raising Brielle against some of the more common practices. I know we are judged for some of the choices we are making because they are not the normal. But you know what, that suits me just fine. As long as both Rhonda & I feel we are doing what we feel is right for us and for Brielle, that's really all that matters. She's a very happy, healthy, smart, funny, beautiful little girl and we love her for every single part of who she is.
I have never written about my struggles the way this guy has written, not because I am afraid of the judgment, but because I haven't really felt this way yet. There have been a few days where Brielle has cried way more than normal or gotten into mischief way more than normal. There have also been a few days where I've been sick and wished I could just rest, but no days where I've felt so frustrated that I wanted to crawl into a hole and disown my child for a minute, an hour, a day. Nope, I haven't had that day yet. I likely will, but am thankful and grateful that I have been able to keep sane thus far.
So I hope you found the full article as great as I did and that you have maybe released some of the guilt you've been feeling when you've had days like this. And huge kudos to this dad for being honest.
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