And even when you do follow all the educated and researched wisdom, you will find that for every book you read there is another one with conflicting advice from PhDs and MDs that will still keep you guessing at your adequacy of a parent. In the meantime, until your kids have children of their own, they are not going to forgive you when you leave them with a new babysitter for the first time nor will they excuse your uncoolness of not letting them leave the house without shoes, play near edges where they may fall or hook up with society's possible law-breaking citizen of the future. As well, you will make mistakes. There will be times when you think your child is exaggerating to get out of dishes... right before he projectiles dinner across your kitchen floor. Your motherly attention scale will surely go off balance toward one sibling leaving the other miffed and brooding. And yes, in this day of 'spare the rod' mentality, you may very well retract your arm and release a swift whack on a well-padded diapered butt. But, in the end, if your goal and desire is to love and nurture your children the best you can, surely you will not deviate too far off the path of good and crash into failure.
Imperfect Parenting
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Luckily I have grounded myself to realize that my mother and grandmother are right. I will make mistakes and even if I do not, my children are going to find times to under appreciate my mothering skills. The more I live this crazy life of a mom, I realize that books are great to fall back on but they are not a valid substitution for the actual experiences of being a mother. We are three-dimensional beings with emotions; we are not a one dimensional black and white paperback devoid of erroneous zones. In fact, there are times when you may want to launch the clever-beyond-years, all-knowing text book through your front room window.
