Guest Post::Parenting You Should Never Lose Your Humor

I am so excited to have our first Guest Post! And who better to kick this off than our Blogger of the Month, The Crayon Wrangler! Have you had a chance to visit yet? Getting to our Blogger of the Month is easy! Click the link on the sidebar, or follow the link through the tab above and prepare for some fantastic writing.

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Parenting is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It requires an insane amount of forward thinking, being fast on your feet and even faster with your responses. It can easily bring the strongest adult to their knees either in exhaustion or prayer. One should never look at a parent and believe that they have an easy life. Likewise, never tell a parent that their job is an easy one. You will get eaten for dinner with a nice red wine. 

I get asked a lot how I am able to look at parenting with so much humor. Don't put me on a pedestal just yet; there are many days I am hiding under my bed armed with a box of chocolate and murmuring incoherently about my spawn when my husband is able to find me and pull me out. The majority of the time, I try to just laugh about it. I am able to do this because:

If I don't laugh about it, I will cryI look at it as a home movie and ask, "If I was watching this 20 years from now; would I laugh?"Laughing about life lessons teaches my kids to laugh and builds self esteem. 

Let's face it, many times in parenting when you walk into a kitchen with cereal spilled on the floor, trying to get a pea out of a child's nose or the infant just painted the crib with a certain body function; you just want to cry. I believe the response to cry is because you are living in the moment. What if you don't live in the moment? What would your outlook be on those scenarios? If you look at that moment with the forward thought of it being someone else's kid or you are watching a home movie about it 20 years from now; you would be laughing. Why wait 20 years to laugh about it?

Let's look at the home movie of the cereal spilled all over the floor. You see the entire contents of the Cheerio box coating the floor. You are amazed at the fact that such a small box can actually cover 40 square feet with enough grain and wheat O's to make valleys and peaks. It the middle of all this is a child with an expression mixed with pride because they just fed themselves and fear over what your response will be. Instead of immediately grabbing the vacuum, you have other options. Grab some deep belly laughs and a camera. Praise your child for trying to feed themselves. You have just taught your child that while mistakes happen, the intention of what they were doing was correct. They have seen their mistake and learned that its OK to laugh at it and move on.

You have increased their self esteem and empowered them to continue to try to learn the correct ways of doing things, but if they make a mess of things you will be there to help willingly and not criticize. Later in life this will be crucial, because you want your children to come to you with the really big mistakes to ask advice and receive help. The lesson they learn from you blowing your top over spilled cereal is one of fear of messing up and fear of your correction.

Don't get me wrong and send me hate mail; there are times that a serious situation warrants a serious response. Not everything in life can laughed off, but with our children...don't sweat the small stuff and understand that every situation can be a learning lesson for them. This parenting thing is hard; no doubt about it. If you want to see some lessons that parents have learned check out some of these lessons from myself and other parents. http://coloringoutsidetheline.blogspot.com/search/label/lessons%20learned  If you visited that link, I am assured you are laughing. Let's keep that laughter in our parenting, know that you are not alone in the daily trials with your kids and never wait 20 years to laugh.