By My Side neighborhood parenting group

Well, once again this blog had been neglected!!

Guess I'll never make a living at blogging. LOL

Here we are at the end of January already! Time sure does fly when you're having fun!

The fall seems like a very far distant memory. It was exciting to have Yvonne, Wendy & Nicole try their wings at running the 10 week Discovery Group for the 4-8 year olds. Gotta love giving parents the opportunity to explore their own talents in the pursuit of providing an educaional experience for their kids! They did a great job & learned alot about what it takes to facilitate such a series.

We often focus so much on the child's growth & development that we tend to forget that we parents are growing right alongside. Each phase of a child's growth offers new challenges and requires us to learn new ways of relating to that little person we once knew as an infant.

So many of the kids that have been coming to playgroup as babies are now entering the "terrible twos". Parents fret at the sweet, mild-mannered, innocent toddler who all of a sudden is pushing, grabbing, hitting & asserting themselves in ways never seen before almost overnight!!

It changes how we see ourselves as parents and requires a new skill set to handle the power struggles that will occur. What is comforting is seeing that you're not alone and that this behavior is totally normal. Being firm, consistent & developing awareness of not engaging  in the power struggle is key to riding it through. Much easier said than done. The talents of learning how to re-direct behavior & allowing tantrums to run their course is a balancing act that requires practice. Nerves get frazzled and children will push you to the limit or at least give it a good try.

I like to tell my parents that the "terrible two's" are just a practice run for adolescence! You should see the looks of horror that statement can bring!!

 It's that wonderful dicotomy of seeking self-identity & independence while still needing the security of the caregiver.... push & pull at the same time.....ebb & flow.

You learn alot about yourself during these stages....what pushes your buttons, how well you manage frustration, how patient you are or are not, how well you manage your own anger, how you react under pressure, etc. 

My children taught me an awful lot about myself over these 37+ years and continue to do so. "Parenting" is a verb, an action word...there is nothing passive about it!

I still have parenting struggles with my grown children. It doesn't end. Once you're a parent, you're a parent for life!!

I once had this fantasy  that when children become grown & begin their own independent lives that my job was done. My fantasy went even further as I pictured how grateful they would be for all I had done to get them to that point. I'm over it !!

What I have learned is that the parts of parenting I am most proud of are the things my children will never know I did and that's how it should be. I don't want to be the News Anchor, I'm more the producer off to the side that no one knows who gains satisfaction from a segment well done or agonizes over one that didn't go so well. Either way, I will continue to learn & produce those segments because that's what I love. My contract has no "opt-out" clause!