The Best Mommy

I'm doing well with this mom thing I guess. I know it's not fashionable to say so in the blog world. Let's face it, misery loves company. But I'm doing well anyway. So there. I said it.

The thing is, maybe other parents would disagree.

Because I choose to let my kids eat crap food probably more often than I should. You know, if K has a choice of what he wants to eat, more often than not he'll choose the grapes or the carrots or the apple over the chips or crackers. M makes the same choice quite often, though not as often as K.

Because I let my kids watch TV, pretty much whenever they want to. And if they have a choice of playing outside or watching TV, they choose outside.

Because I don't sweat it that K isn't interested in learning to write his name or even take the time to put his name tag on the letter K at "school" and it didn't bother me that much that M wasn't interested in that stuff and still really isn't into it that much. They'll learn it when they're ready. In fact, I have a hunch that my kids know more of this stuff than they let on.

I had my end-of-preschool conference with one of M's teachers today. She told me all the stuff I already know: M is loving, empathetic, shares, is kind and caring and loves to do dramatic play, particularly with the horses lately. She also told me that M needs to work on rhyming and learning the beginning sounds of words (like that mermaid starts with m). She's totally snowing the teachers. She knows this stuff but doesn't want to do it! She did something similar when I picked her up from preschool a few weeks ago. One of the teachers greeted me with a big smile and pointed at M on the swing "She learned to pump today!" the teacher declared. I couldn't help it, I laughed. And told her M has been pumping her legs while swinging since at least last summer...she just wanted the attention of the teachers pushing her on the swing!

M's no dummy. She sees that if she pretends she doesn't understand something that the teachers will give her more attention to help her learn it.

So there it is. I'm the best mommy ever for MY KIDS. I know how they think. I know what motivates them. I know what's best for them.

It matters little to me what other parents do. They're not in my home. They're not raising my unique children. I'm doing this Mommy thing my own way. And I think I'm doing most of it right.

---------------------------

I wrote this in response to Rebecca's post at Girl's Gone Child. I really had some wiser things in mind to write, but this is what came from my fingertips today...maybe this will spark another posting later.