Welcome to the Bad Parent blog post series.
I am FED up of the way parents, and actually mothers, to be honest, are put under so much pressure, to be perfect and to have this parenting thing under control and be able to do it all, and the constant judgement we are under. This parenting job is HARD, we get no training, we don’t get paid, and we do it because we want to and love our children. Sometimes we don’t get it right, sometimes we get it more than right. We are all mostly just trying to do our best. I am tired of the “how to be a perfect wife, mother, craft provider, cleaning lady, cook…” stuff that gets flung at us every day. We need to take the guilt and throw it away and enjoy parenting, but also be able to admit when it’s not going so well, or might be a bit tough…
Actually, it was yesterday that I had my bad parent moment… I was in the playground at school, waiting to go into help in one of the classes, when my small son’s class had to line up, after the whistle had gone, to end playtime after lunch. I happened to over hear the teacher on duty, having a bit of a moan to the other class teacher, who had just arrived, and tell her that the children had all been a bit naughty and hadn’t been listening, and that she had had to be quite strict with them. This is a teacher I am in AWE of, and I happen to think is amazing and whom both my children adore and who’s opinion and teaching skills we all respect highly.
Why does this make me a bad parent you ask? Because I may have felt a slight warm glow, inside me, that my children DON’T listen to other people and it’s NOT JUST ME that feels occasionally like I am talking to the wind when I am getting them to try and do something, leave the house, tidy up, go to bed (and on, and on, and on I could go…) I always assumed that children listen to their teachers and behave much better at school than they do at home, and always felt a little inadequate that the teacher can make a class go quiet with one sentence, or that they all go and get their coats on if she tells them once, whereas I have to sometimes (a lot) bellow like an angry bull to get things done in a timely fashion, round these parts.
I love the teachers, I think they are amazing, but now I know they are only human, and that I am not alone.I am a bad parent because felt relieved and slightly smug at what I overheard in the playground!
Although I am convinced that my son holds his adored Miss J in some sort of space above me and generally does what he is told by her, and not so much me… 😉
Have you had a bad parenting moment you would like to share? Feel free in the comments, no questions or judgement here! 😉