Non-Tips for Great Parenting.

There are parenting books galore about what to do or not to do to raise well adjusted children. I haven’t read any of them so I can’t tell you if Tiger-Momming is worst than Attachment Parenting, or if raising Latchkey Kids is really worst of all. What I can tell you is that in addition to my two year old son, I have three step-sons ages 15, 13, and 7, and in a house with all men four of them under the legal age required to drink my life as a parent requires a lot of patience.

That is my only so-called tip to being a good parent. Pack your patience, oh, and give yourself some grace, everything else is a coin toss.

This is not to be flippant about the joys or the struggles of parenting. If you’re a member of any FaceBook parenting group than your timeline and inbox is filled with messages of parents everywhere venting or relishing in their children. My groups consist mostly of new moms. The conversation ranges from “colic is a bitch” to “oh my God what’s this rash.”

I read more often than I comment because my tiny dictator only allows me to scroll before taking my phone and insisting I call his Grandma or his Daddy. When I do have the opportunity to comment my only words of encouragement are “You got this,” or “Have you tried nursing and napping.”

The latter is something I discovered soothed my child and allowed us both to get some sleep when sleepless nights are the norm. The former is the only thing a parent, new or veteran, really wants to hear because parenting is hard enough without everybody else’s advice and unsolicited, or even solicited opinions.

Patience, grace, remind yourself you will never ever let anything or anyone hurt your child, and if you haven’t try nursing and napping. Everything else as a parent you will learn on your own. You will develop on your own and what you don’t you will find out you just might not need.