The Parenting Trap

When I had Camille, I was 28 years old.  I really wanted to parent her "correctly."  There were/are so many philosophies to choose from.  Growing Kids God's Way (blech!), Attachment Parenting, The Ferber Method of sleeping, and of course the The Pearl's crazy ideas!  (let's beat our child with rubber tubing) Now that I am 43 and on child number five, I can honestly say there is no parenting method that fits every child. To be quite honest, it doesn't matter when they use the toilet, if they know their alphabet by the time they are three, if they color inside the lines, if they can count, or stack blocks, or all of that hooplah.  By the time they are in the third grade, it all evens out.  Josiah didn't even know his alphabet when he started Kindergarten and by the end of Kindergaten he was reading just like every other child.  I am so happy I am not that crazy "have to do it right" mother that I used to be.  One more reason I am so grateful for leaving that legalistic, cultish Christianity I was a part of for so long.  If Jesus is the example of love, then I will be that for my children.  Everything else will fall into place.