Parenthood

I'm three and half years into this parenthood thing...so you, know, an expert. (insert laughing emoji). The one thing that is a fact of parenthood is that it can be exhausting. No matter how well-behaved, or how awesome your child is (which mine is both), it can be exhausting. There's something to that thing that childless people say about liking kids but are happy to be able to leave. That's because there are things that a child does that on the surface seem harmless, but at the end of a long day, and after the seventh hundredth time they've done said thing, it's EXHAUSTING. 

I don't claim to have any answers or claim to know the right way to go about parenting, but I believe there a few things that parents should always keep in mind and thought I'd share those.

1. Stay calm, because if you start to overreact, they feed off that energy, creating a dangerous dynamic.

2. Patience, patience, patience. They will try to test this at every turn, and failure to remain patient never ends well.

3. Talk to them as if they understand, and if at any moment, you sense they don't understand, try to explain it a different way that they might understand. And always follow-up with them with questions to be sure they've comprehended the important points.

4. Show them love, especially at those points when you've reached your limit. Let them know that being angry or frustrated will never mean you don't love them.

5. Remember that they are real people (albeit small ones) with real emotions and thoughts, and that those thoughts and emotions are just as important and valuable to them as yours are to you.