My Little Rocky

Navigating parenthood is something that never gets easier.  Silly me.  I thought it would.

When I had 3 kids under the age of 2, 3 kids under the age of 3, 3 kids under the age of 4 (and so on...you get the idea) I knew it was hard.  I thought it would get easier though.

In some ways I was right. In many ways I was wrong. 

Today my 3 spent an hour at a friend's house while I attended a parent/teacher conference with my husband.  Thankfully the conference went well for both twins and the teacher had many positive things to say with a  little bit of instructive criticism throw in. 

Even the playdate was going well at my friend's home...that is until I arrived. 

We heard screaming coming from the basement and we ran down there to find an injury to Boy Wondertwin.  I checked him out and despite the screaming, there was no blood.  I tried to console him but he kept screaming.  Seeing that I wasn't going to be able to quiet him, I started picking up the toys.  It was then that Boy Wondertwin decided to haul off and hit our friend's son right in the eye socket! 

There was more screaming as you can imagine.  I disciplined BWT and finally talked him into apologizing to the boy.  Ugh.  What a day.

I was so embarrassed about my son's actions and shocked that he would do such a thing.  I blame myself a little because I didn't take his injury serious enough at the time but when we got home I noticed that he is bruised and it probably was quite painful.  Maybe if I had given him more compassion (I really am the least compassionate person on the planet) maybe he wouldn't have felt that he needed to take matters into his own hands.

Anyway, these are new waters that I'm navigating as a parent.  The playgroup days were different.  There were scuffles etc but parents were always a stone's throw away to referee.  Life is different now and I have to start trusting that I'm raising them in such a way that they won't haul off and beat the crud out of someone while I'm not around.  I guess we're still working on that part.

The other aspect is my relationships with the parents of these children.  Who my kids get along with and DON'T get along with may begin to dictate my friends.  I really don't like that part.  Thankfully this particular mom is very understanding and she is becoming a good friend.  I think we might just make it through these rough waters.

Oh...all the things no one tells you BEFORE you decided to have children.