By Kristen Taylor
Uh oh. I’ve become that parent. You know the one: I’m the mother who babies her growing children to the point of eye rolling and groaning; to the point where I’m embarrassing not only my kids, but myself as well.
When our children are babies, we have the luxury of observing people with their older kids, and swearing that we’ll never commit the same goofy mistakes that are so easy to see in others. It turns out that those infractions almost impossible to avoid. Try good parenting?
Last week, the kids and I were out to lunch, and while we were talking I noticed a whole lot of ketchup on my son’s face. Without announcing my intentions or even thinking about it, I took my napkin to his face and started swabbing.
“Mom, once again, don’t just come at me with a napkin. It’s overwhelming.”
If your kid talks like a thirty-five year old, he’s probably old enough to clean his own face.
My daughter has been the victim of similar attacks, but even worse, they were committed with a spit-swabbed finger.
“Mom, don’t wipe your spit on me! That’s gross!”
Yes, indeed it is. But how do I help it? We spend the early years fulfilling our children’s every need, often before they even realize those needs themselves. Those patterns and habits are tough to break.
Being a parent to a growing child makes for a constant struggle and inner dialogue that goes back and forth between, “Back off and let them handle it,” to, “Just get it done.” Sometimes it’s more efficient to do things yourself, rather than explain something patiently and supervise the process. And sometimes I don’t want to clean up the mess that will result in the kids doing things for themselves, or go through the three tries it might take. But obviously, there are times when I step over the line to complete dork, and that is when the kids have clearly grown up enough to handle certain things themselves.
So I pledge right now that I am not going to be that mother, the one who sits next to her son at his wedding and cuts his steak for him. Or maybe I’ll just insist that he have the chicken
Author Bio
Kristen Taylor is a mother of two and owner of Juvie, an online boutique for preteens and tweens featuring the best girls clothing and boys clothing