It even starts with labor. As your child gets older, we share stories of things they did. Some people joke that they are "war stories". They really are parenting adventures. Zach's tree adventures were featured recently. A favorite is about potty training. If your kid is out of diapers, you have at least one really funny potty training story. I did mine is a potty training blog post.
Potty Training 101:
http://homewithmommy-fran.blogspot.com/2011/01/potty-training-101.html
We let him stay up late for his last vacation night. He was supposed to be laying down watching TV. I just went to check on him. He had that "I did something naughty" smile and laugh going. If you know THAT look, you're a parent!!! So I asked what he did. He had cut out the center of his bangs and part of the hair on the back of his head. His bangs were long but we were too busy to cut them just yet. He lost patience.
So we went to see Josh's Dad for a fix-it hair cut. He did a great job!
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| Before |
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| After |
Of course my first image was this one:
Zach thought his version was great. Until he saw himself in the mirror. Then he was worried about being teased. We told him some of our parenting adventure stories and showed him pictures of when he was younger, not just a baby. That calmed him down after a good long time.
He loves his bangs. He's had them almost literally his entire life. It won't be long before his hair grows back. I highly doubt he'll cut it himself again. After the haircut we were driving to the grocery story for scallions (I'm making Chicken Parmesan tonight and needed some). Josh and I joked about this adventure.
Between haircuts, it was just high stress parenting all around. After the haircut, it was later. So we laughed about it later. Zach likes the haircut and laughed too. The part that made it so hard to calm him down last night was fear over what his hair will look like this short. He relaxed once he saw the final result. He'll spend the month with a hat on outside. But at least he likes it.
It's another parenting adventure added to the list. The thing is, these adventures help make the child the person they become. Life experiences to learn from. I should be mad he did this. But I'm not. It's hard to get him to cooperate for regular hair cuts. Maybe now that he knows more about what's going on, it'll be easier for him to sit through. The picture I use for this blog was from Zach's first haircut at 13 months.
There are a lot of people like me. When we are trying to figure out who we are, we look at pictures from when we were growing up. Not the posed pictures. The pictures of the things we are doing. Because the truth is there all along. There are things that are clearly part of how we were created. THAT comes out in pictures.
I take these pictures so he can learn about himself. We have a collage on the wall in the hall of baby Zach playing with all of his favorite things. In each picture I show what his favorite thing on that play area was. There are seven pictures in all. I take pictures of him doing what he loves to do at each age. They help me figure him out and one day might help him figure himself out.
These parenting adventures are spontaneous. Kids are unpredictable. Parents are just along for the ride! How they are handled depend on child's age, what they did, parenting philosophy, and aftermath. The best way to handle the stresses of parenting is to think of them as adventures. Experiences that will make great stories.
Any experience helps people grow. When parents tell non-parents "you don't know what you're missing" this is what they mean. Non-parents hear these stories and think about the nightmare of dealing with them. Parents think about the adventure and personal growth for everyone involved. These adventures make parenting so wonderful...........and THAT'S the irony!!!
I'll end with my very favorite of all of my parenting adventures:
We have always taken family walks. In Spring of 2011 we decided to let Zach lead the way one night. He was about a month shy of his second birthday. I broke my foot soon after for reference. Anyway, Zach is leading the way. He kept heading to this busier street and we kept steering him around. He wasn't crossing the street. But he wanted too. After a lot of tries to re-direct him, Josh and I decided to let him lead. We were nervous since we didn't have the stroller with us. Not long after crossing the street I knew where he was going.............................Grandma and Pop's house. Not even two years old and he knew how to get to their house without help!!!
I've talked about how close we live to my parents before. But for such a small kid, it was a very long walk. Part of what makes this a favorite story is that it's an impressive distance for a kid that young to travel on foot! Luckily, Grandma and Pop were heading out to dinner and gave us a ride home! If we missed them, I would have stayed there with Zach while Josh walked home for the car.
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