Teacher Teach Thyself

This parenting gig is overrated! I stand before you this morning scratching my head wondering why I even try to talk to my children about anything. Anything I say gets tossed out until they run into trouble and then suddenly they are remorseful and claiming they will remember this moment when they realized I am not so dumb after all and listen to me next time. Hmmm, probably not!

Once again, I am watching one of my children walk boldly into a mistake and all I can do is stand by asking leading questions that I hope will prompt a reality check. So far this plan is not working. All my leading questions have accomplished is the chance to see another scoffing look and a rising stress level.

You know those movies and television shows where you see the person getting ready to do something stupid and you are yelling in your head and sometimes at the show “NO, DON’T DO IT!” well, picture me doing that in my head as I try to pretend like I don’t care that my child is being stupid… “You will have to figure it out”, I say to my said stupid child while all the while I want to leap up grab their shoulders and shake them into thinking straight.

You know how the saying goes that you learn best from your mistakes? Well, my continuous attempt at protecting my children from those lessons has resulted in them coming up with more crazy schemes and even more mistakes they would like to try again. I am sure it is obvious to you by now that my batch of apples do not fall far from their Mother’s tree. I never seem to learn that no matter what I say, these children will trot right back into whatever mess they have left behind. Which is exactly what I do when I once again attempt to steer them away from a signed sealed and delivered mistake. So in the end, I am really no better than my bunch of apples am I?

This is not going to be easy, but I am going to have to stand by and watch this life lesson take place. Then I will have to act surprised and sad when what I thought would happen does happen. This is a case of teacher, teach thy self. Again, this parenting gig is overrated!