Overwhelmed Parenting

Happy New Years everyone!  Are you all feeling a little overwhelmed with gifts, putting away holiday things and getting back to a 5 day routine again?

I started thinking about my resolutions and what this year will bring for me.  The biggest thing is that my 4 year old will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall! What?? When did that happen? She was just a baby the other day and I was crying about lack of sleep from a newborn, seriously. (And that lack of sleep thing never goes away I think as a parent- illnesses, potty issues, nightmares, etc.)  But I digress..

I got to thinking about this blog and ALL of the parenting posts and realized HOW OVERWHELMING IT IS TO PARENT A CHILD in 2015.  And what I mean by that is all of the things a parent has to do to make sure our children grow up well in today's society.  It's from making sure we teach them things like manners to how much screen time to have. I realized I have slacked in posting more about how to help and one page handouts like I had promised a while back, so I have a resolution to do more this year.

But I realized while reflecting that it can sure feel exhausting when you think about all of the things our naive little beings have to learn (or we feel we have to teach them). We want them to be able to be independent one day and leave the house at 18 feeling we did a good job.

It's hard enough to remember to say and do all of the right things to increase their self-esteem, teach them good morals, use effective discipline (which could be like 50 different items here), teaching 'right from wrong', natural consequences, how to be nice to others, how to look both ways before we cross the street, fostering autonomy and independence, how to be a good citizen, social media dos and don'ts, and most importantly: how to not pick your nose in front of others :)

Or how about the dreaded 'where do we come from' questions and good touch/bad touch discussions? "Hands are not for hitting" and teaching them how to take turns.  Do you let them play out in the front yard or back yard alone? How to not talk to strangers.  And teaching them how not to get thrown out of a restaurant for disruptive behavior (or dirty looks from fellow diners at 6pm at night- come on, you are dining during children's hour, what did you expect?).

And speaking of the holidays, a big one this year was how to not tell the relative, "I already have that toy!" Uhm, awkward.  For the record I had this conversation with my child several times prior to gift giving season and I could tell she was about to forget one night, so I quickly told her to say "thank you" before she realized what had happened, phew!

I don't have all of the answers on how to make your life easier raising children, but I do have a resolution to send more of my 'how to' and hand outs this year.  I thought the older my children got, the more time I would have to do things like devote to my blog, but it has kind of been the opposite.

Here's to a Happy New Year 2015!

The Counselor Mom