Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: BRAG (04/20/17)
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TITLE: Mother Knows Best | Previous Challenge Entry
By Sylvia Young
04/27/17 -
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As the parent of a nearly perfect two-and-a-half year old girl, I was extraordinarily proud of myself. I had done a very good job of raising my little girl. Although I never said so out loud, I thought it every day. I would often mentally criticized other parents, especially those of rowdy boys who never seemed to listen. I would think, 'I have a book you should read!'
My little angel did exactly what she was told nearly all the time, and in the rare instances when she dared to defy me, a slight frown generally got her back in line. Adults praised me for my parenting, and I took it all in, preening over the success of my hard work...if not externally, at least in my mind.
Aw, the bliss of those thirty months.
Then my son was born.
All of notions of my excellent parenting slowly vanished as my boy grew. From the beginning, he was much more difficult. He cried all the time, hardly slept, and was difficult to nurse. At the age of eight months, he began to openly defy me. Whereas my daughter listened at that age, my son took joy in willfully ignoring me.
When she was about to touch the television, all I had to say was, “AH!” and her little hand retracted quickly. When I did the same to my son, he merely grinned and slapped the screen with his sticky hand.
By the time this boy was about two, I had to admit that it was not my phenomenal parenting that had produced such a star of a daughter. If it was so, my son should have been another shining example of my hard work. He was, however, a challenge every minute of the day...except when he was sleeping.
No, my daughter was probably born that way. I had little, if anything to do with it. I know that now.
These days, when people praise me for the actions or general behavior of eldest child, I merely smile and say, “She's who God made her to be.” When they raise their eyebrows over my defiant one, still so, determined to do things his own way, I sigh a little, shrug, still smile and say, “He is his own person. I trust that God with his life. I won't be surprised if all of his defiance is channeled into good one day. God has His hand on him.”
I have a third child as well. She seems to be a bit of a mix of the other two, but I don't beat myself up whenever she does something wrong, nor do I brag when she does something right.
Here's what I have learned. I'm fairly certain that my parenting affects their day-to-day lives, but not their character. That is being molded by God. He has a plan for them, for their lives, and has created them to be who they are, with or without me. My job is to take care of them and to care for them, not to make then into perfect little soldiers.
It was a hard lesson to learn, but through it all, I am also learning who I'm supposed to be.
Thank God for children.
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Blessings~
I'm glad all your precious children are turning out just the way God planned them to be.