If you were to sit around chatting with my kids long enough, one of them would inevitably try to embarrass me by telling you about one of my less than perfect moments. “Did you know my mom once threw ice water on all of us?” They would then look up to see my response, which would be a slightly shameful nod of the head admitting it is the truth- I really did throw ice water on them one time.
Drive-thru experiences stress me out. The prodding to get kids to choose what they want to eat, remembering the different preferences so I can order, and the whiny children that hate waiting in the line (they want food NOW) cause me to become slightly flustered every time. The moment, though, when I am handed five water cups, a bag full of food that I have to put somewhere while simultaneously hearing the cries of “Where’s my hamburger?”, and doing my best to drive forward as to not hold up the line is definitely the worst.
On this particular day, all of the usual stressful events occurred. I made it out of the line and pulled around the corner. My kids had been begging and begging because they were so thirsty prior to going through the drive-thru so I quickly tried to hand them their ice waters. By this time, they were all distracted by something, so I sat there, ice water in hand with my arm awkwardly extended behind me patiently waiting for someone to grab the cup from me. It felt like an eternity but, of course, it was just a few seconds.
What did my impatient self do because no one would take the water? Yes, yes I did… I threw the whole cup of water at them. They weren’t distracted anymore just cold, wet and shocked. I instantly felt bad about my reaction to my frustration. I quickly apologized because I had made a bad choice. I even gave myself a consequence. Years later, though, my kids love to tell the story of how I lost my cool and threw ice water at them in the van.
It wasn’t the first time I had reacted in a negative way to my emotions and wasn’t the last or even the worst but it still reigns as a favorite “Let’s embarrass Mom” story.
I tell you this because when I think of writing parenting advice or stories, I worry that you would quickly discover how truly flawed I am. Something I write may be in direct conflict with how you view parenting. Likely, we disagree about something.
That’s the secret- I don’t actually know what I am doing all of the time as far as parenting goes. In fact, a lot of it is trial and error. I make mistakes, I overreact, sometimes I am too tired to even react at all.
I’m thinking in future posts of sharing some ideas about parenting. Writing about parenting feels vulnerable because so many people hold such strong opinions. I think our strong opinions are centered on the fact that parenting and raising children is one of the most important things to us. It shows we care very much how successful we are as parents. It’s a good thing that we are trying our best to raise our children in a way that aligns with our values and our ideas. It is also good to remember that most, if not all of the other parents, are also doing their best to raise children according to their values.
