Chapter 1 Sorry, not sorry
I’m trying to not apologize to Ollie for everything. Hear me out, I totally believe in humbling yourself and taking responsibility for wrongs toward others and asking for forgiveness. However, I do not control the weather or if Ollie trips over that crack in the floor,* yet I constantly apologizing to him for everything. I read an article in Readers Digest several months ago that talked about why French children are so well behaved.
One of the points that really hit me is that it is okay to let your child suffer sometimes. “If you spare them every kind of discomfort, you are preparing great miseries for them.” It’s one of those ideas that you support whole heartedly in theory, but it’s so hard in practice. Especially when it comes to apologizing for things you can’t control.
One of the hard things about being a parent is actually preparing kids for life, including them understanding that pain is a fact of life. Otherwise, life will inevitably smack them against the head and they will be looking for someone to blame.**
Chapter 2. Excuse me, there’s a toddler in my soup
Ollie is honestly such an easy kid; however, he has two year old moment, because he is two. I feel so much pressure in keeping Ollie quiet when we are in public, and so I give in a lot easier than when we are home.
The other evening, we went out to eat and it was close to Ollie’s bedtime. He was fussy and loud. I was doing my best to keep him quiet for the sake of the other patrons, including watching Daniel Tiger on my phone.*** I keep planning on making a restaurant activity bag for him, but I haven’t yet, so you know, yay screen time.**** It wasn’t my best parenting day, but I was tired and dizzy (not good at taking my iron). A lady comes over and I was thinking she was going to let me know how I can be a better parent.
No! She was offering up words of encouragement. I just tear up thinking how kind it was of her to do that. If you see a mom obviously struggling, please go over and make her not feel judged. That’s one of the kindest things you can do.
Chapter 3. Ollie thinks inside the box
Our church choir sang Christmas carols at the botanical gardens last night. We got there a little early, so Ollie and I went to see Santa. Ollie is still not ready to see Santa by himself, but he likes him from afar.
Ollie had fun running in between our legs as we were singing. He even ran into me so hard, it caused me to sit on someone’s head as they were bending down to grab something.
At one point the choir stopped singing because we were laughing too hard. Ollie worked really hard to sit in a box that was just a little too small for him.
He then tried to get out of the box, but that caused the box and him to topple over. This resulted in his pants and diaper being pulled down, and he showed the majority of his bum.
Epilogue
One of my goals is to stop using the word sorry, unless I am responsible for what I am apologizing for. My next goal is to train Ollie to sit in a chair. I may have to use Pinterest to that. I also want to make sure I encourage other parents. Most important, I want to leave boxes around the house because Ollie just makes me laugh.
*Ow! My back!
** I blame women wearing pants
*** not super proud, just being honest
**** which causes depression and anxiety among kids
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