I think that the best parents are the ones who can admit that they have room to improve.  I feel like I’m much better at this job when I can step back and say, “wow, I really coulda handled THAT better” rather than patting myself on the back for my awesome display of parenting skills.

What do you think? Is it healthier to think you’re an omniscient superparent or recognizing the missteps you make along the way?

Do you ever have those moments if you hear a phrase one more time your head might explode?  Here’s mine:

“Hey Mom?…”

Innocent right? I love the little tiny voice that is saying it.  I love that Addison loves to talk to me and knows that she can ask me questions.  She knows that I take the time to give her a real, thoughtful answer and I never ‘baby them down’, if she asks me why our voices are different, I tell her about how vocal chords work.  And she gets it.

But when the questions come without any thinking behind them – like bullets – incessant with barely a breath between each “hey mom? hey mom? hey mom? hey mom? hey mom? hey mom? hey mom?” On and on and on.

In those moments I have to close my eyes and breathe.  And then I ask Addie to PLEASE think about her questions before she asks them.  She listens and it sticks for a couple of days but then she returns to being the three and a half year old she is and the bullets start right back up again.  But then she asks me why we don’t have two legs on one side and I can’t help but smile.  How could I resist answering a question like that?

What an imagination!