But I'm in a ranty mood...so....if you are anti-rant/venting....skip merrily into the sunset here. Things might get ugly.
We have all seen that mom in the grocery store yelling at her kid for some seemingly innocuous thing. We have all prayed that we would never become that mom. I think. I know I prayed that always. And I always tried so hard to be understanding because I didn't have kids and I knew that motherhood was much harder than I could ever imagine and that we should cut people a little slack.
But you know what? I'm a mom now. And you know what is not hard at all? Loving my kid. Loving my kid even when she screams--SCREAMS at the top of her precious little lungs--"NO!" in the middle of a crowded grocery store aisle and every person glares at you like you are some kind of bad crack mom. Guess how much I care? Glare away. I love my kid. Do I let her get away with screaming? Abso-freakin-lutely not, but I love her and I will not scream back at her. She's 17 months old. And when I see other moms scream at their babies, I get a little hot under the collar. Or a lot. And these days I have no qualms about glaring and saying things like, "Are you serious right now?" Out loud. To other people. To other people yelling at their babies.
The more experience I gain in my career and the more I gain confidence in my role as a mother, the more I realize just how serious this preparing-little-humans-for-the-world-gig is. This is a big deal--the biggest deal--and there are no excuses for messing it up. None. Zero.
I don't care who you are. I don't care what you've been through. I don't care if you had the baddest crack mom on the planet. Well, I do care and I'm so incredibly sorry and devastated when I hear those stories, but what I mean by I don't care is that there are no excuses for doing that to your own kid. None. Once you find yourself with child, you don't get to have your own emotional baggage anymore. You have to put that little human first.
I just read a blog post about what kids need to know before kindergarten and saw a comment from a woman saying "I wasn't told this and my kid wasn't ready and it was so embarrassing." You weren't told that you should read to your kid? Bullshit. You weren't told that you communicating with your child was beneficial to their development? Do you live under a rock? And who is supposed to tell you this stuff? Hmmmm? Does the world owe it to you to teach you how to be a decent parent? No.
Bottom line: it is your job to prepare this little human for the world and no one is responsible for figuring out how to do that except for you. And if you have the internet, there are even less excuses. Do you think someone told me crib bumpers are not safe? Do you think someone taught me how to handle a screaming toddler in a public place? Do you think someone told me what my child should be accomplishing at each age and stage of her life? Do you think I would know any of that if I just left it up to other people to inform me? No. I wouldn't. Someone did tell me. Someone called Google.
In addition to being a mom, I'm a teacher.
I see everyday what happens when someone doesn't take the time to figure out how to be even a halfway decent parent.
And it is so devastating that I will admit to occasionally crying at my desk during my lunch hour. And sometimes when I rock my sweet baby, too. Because I can love my little human to infinity and beyond, and it will never make up for the sweet babies I can't reach with my love, the ones who may be neglected or abused, the ones who desperately need it. I will do all I can while I can...and it will never be enough.
There is nothing more important than our children. There is nothing more important than raising them to be happy, healthy, fully-functioning members of society. There are no excuses for screwing that up. If you don't know how to do something, ask for help. Google it, for the love of pete! There are no excuses for not knowing. Especially in this day and age. Figure it out.
No comments:
Post a Comment