It's funny, before I became a parent I knew EVERYTHING about parenting! I knew how to treat kids in all situations, how to stop them doing this or how to make them to do that. I watched friends who’d already had kids and often thought “if only they’d approached it this way, the outcome would have been better”. Since becoming a parent I have sent a thousand apologies for my ignorance out to the ether. My "expert" opinion was based on nothing but hot air and now my rather hasty judgements have been put back in the box where they deserve to be.
What I do now know is that when dealing with children, everything is variable. Just as you get comfortable in a certain routine, something will happen to throw all that up in the air, just as you thought you were beginning to get on top of something, a curve ball will come and knock you off again. Child rearing is a constant job of trying out, changing course, rethinking and adapting. It's fantastic and frightening, exhilarating and exhausting, but in my mind worth every minute. The last two and three quarter years have taught me that the only way I am going to get any kind of qualification in this crazy job they call "being a parent" is practice.
Lessons learnt:
You will never know it all but that doesn't mean you shouldn't stop trying
Practice might not make you perfect, but it will make you better
Don't judge until you've experienced it!
Complete 360 degrees turn. As you said, as soon as think you've got a handle on things, in goes the really curved ball. But we adapt. We always do.
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What a great post! I always say, you should never admit to feeling like you've got it sorted - the second you do, everything changes!
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