If you are like most parents, you’ve experienced bouts of parental lassitude and are in need of a re-charge. Let’s face it. It happens to the best of us. Kids are kids. Regardless of their age, they will do goofy things and make silly choices that get under our skin.
Bringing a sense of humor to the picture will make a world of difference. As parents, we should be able to laugh at ourselves and our kids. Personally, I think some of us take parenting way too serious and expect too much way too soon from our kids. Often the seriousness leads to stress.
A parent whose child or children are enrolled in multiple extra-curricular activities may be stressed from stretching themselves too thin. You know—not enough time for dinner and homework. Not having enough time to get from point A to point B and cursing every speed limit obeying driver in front of them. Come on now… Don’t get angry with me because I’m obeying the road rules. Lol! Y’all know what I’m talking about. This morning I overslept and caught every school bus in my township. At one stop, the bus driver waited as the student casually tip toed down her lengthy driveway to the bus. I started laughing at the thought of me screaming out the window, “Move it! I’ve gotta get to work!” Lol! But I didn’t do that, I just thought to myself, “If I had gone to bed earlier last night and gotten up earlier this morning, I would have missed all the school buses and the student and bus wouldn’t be an issue.”
Parents should have more realistic expectations from children. Parents evolve, mature, and psychologically develop and so do our children. We don’t have our babies knowing everything about child rearing. Children don’t come with instructional manuals, so we seek to educate ourselves in many ways. We also learn from our actions, the actions of others, and from our children.
A constant fact to remember is that we are developing and so are our children. Our challenge is to find a suitable balance to raise moral, happy, confident, smart, and spiritually connected (for some of us) kids.
To minimize the stress I say the following:
1. Don’t compare your kids to other kids – They’re all individual; let’s treat them that way
2. Respect other parent choices – what works for my kid may not work for yours and vice versa
3. Let your kids develop their own dreams - Live your own dreams
4. Sacrifice within reason
5. Let kids be themselves… KIDS!
6. Core values are more important than a 4.0 GPA
7. Reserve “me time” daily – say “no” to the family and “yes” to you
8. Break historical negative family cycles and create new ones
9. Our kids’ lives will never be error free-- ours isn’t’
10. Relax in 2011!
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