{"id":35994,"date":"2014-05-13T20:51:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T20:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=35994"},"modified":"2014-05-13T20:51:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-13T20:51:06","slug":"letting-go-perfect-parenting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/letting-go-perfect-parenting\/","title":{"rendered":"Letting Go Of Perfect Parenting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured_mom.jpg\" alt=\"featured_mom\" width=\"360\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-post-35994 wp-image-35996\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured_mom.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/featured_mom-300x166.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px\" \/>Many mothers, and some fathers, have shared with me their insecurities about parenting. The question that always comes up is,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut am I doing this parenting thing right? Am I really a good parent?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t think that there is one right way to parent and sometimes we are great at parenting and sometimes we have really bad days.<\/p>\n<p>But I think one of our biggest problems is that we usually focus on the things we don\u2019t do for our kids:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI forgot to send a fruit with his lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t make him his favorite dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t sit with him at bedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t fold the laundry and she has to rummage through the bin to get her socks for school!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI forgot to give a dose of antibiotics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This makes us feel so bad about our parenting. A domino effect comes into play. We focus on what we don\u2019t do for our kids, we feel inadequate and insecure, we get into a bad mood, and then we take it out on our kids\u2026sound familiar?<\/p>\n<p>The antidote is to look at all the simple things that we already do for our kids and keep our attitude positive and upbeat. We need to give ourselves breaks, forgive ourselves for our mistakes and move on.<\/p>\n<p>What are some of the simple things that we already do for our kids that make us good parents?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hugs and kisses<\/li>\n<li>Kissing their boo boos<\/li>\n<li>Playing peek a boo<\/li>\n<li>Cheering them on when they learn to walk<\/li>\n<li>Taking them to the park<\/li>\n<li>Feeding them<\/li>\n<li>Bathing them<\/li>\n<li>Waking them up for school with a smile<\/li>\n<li>Tucking them in at night<\/li>\n<li>Making them brush their teeth<\/li>\n<li>Loving your spouse<\/li>\n<li>Doing the laundry<\/li>\n<li>Celebrating their birthdays<\/li>\n<li>Listening to them tell a story<\/li>\n<li>Laughing at their jokes<\/li>\n<li>Watching movies with them<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The list can go on and on\u2026<\/p>\n<p>And instead of beating ourselves up about what we didn\u2019t do:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI forgot to send a fruit with his lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t make him his favorite dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t sit with him at bedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t fold the laundry and she has to rummage through the bin to get her socks for school!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI forgot to give a dose of antibiotics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Focus on what we did do:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI sent him lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI made dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI tucked him into bed. Last night, I had time to sit with him and tomorrow night I will make sure to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI did the laundry. Her socks were clean.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took him to the doctor when he was sick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You get the point.<\/p>\n<p>So from this day forward, let\u2019s focus on what we do right instead of what we do wrong. We will all be much happier!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many mothers, and some fathers, have shared with me their insecurities about parenting. The question that always comes up is, \u201cBut am I doing this parenting thing right? Am I really a good parent?\u201d I don\u2019t think that there is one right way to parent and sometimes we are great at parenting and sometimes we<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":720,"featured_media":35996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Letting Go Of Perfect Parenting - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/parenting\/letting-go-perfect-parenting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Letting Go Of Perfect Parenting - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many mothers, and some fathers, have shared with me their insecurities about parenting. 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