Monday, April 19, 2010

We're bad parents?!?

We all have moments or days where we feel like we're not good parents. But sometimes your child (not meaning to) reaffirms these feelings & you wonder how could God have entrusted me with these fragile lives? My son's class had to write a story about their lives to be published. He brought it home a few weeks ago for us to proofread. I can't remember the story word for word, so I'm just gonna paraphrase it:


I woke up in the morning, turned the light on, and walked in to snore-filled living room. I said "Dad, can I watch TV?", he didn't answer. Then I screamed "Dad, can I watch TV?" Dad said "NO!". Just then my mom called out "It's time for lunch". I walked in the kitchen and asked my mom what we were having. She said "Whatever you can find!". I looked in the pantry and there was nothing in there but year-old peanut butter. I looked in the refrigerator and there was just an old sandwich. I decided to eat that. I took one bite and it wasn't very good. I just wish I had some pizza!



The End! I began to get tears in my eyes that my son chose to right this story that depicts us as such bad, uncaring parents. We talked to him about it for awhile, and I honestly think he didn't realize that there was anything wrong with it. We told him we were afraid his teacher would report us to CPS! We talked him into picking another topic. So we shredded this story and he began writing about when we went to Goblin Valley in Utah.

I can't speak for Theo, but this incident did make me think about how I am doing as a parent, I definitely think I need to work on my parenting skills!

2 comments:

Christie said...

Oh Vicki, I'm so sorry. I think you are both great parents. No one can ever know what goes on in someone else's house, but your children are all great, well adjusted kids.

There are times when I feel I am not doing enough for my kiddos too. I think questioning ourselves is something well all do as parents. But the simple fact that we do question tells us that we are good parents. If we didn't worry about if we were doing enough for our children, then it WOULD be time to call CPS.

Liz said...

Oh honey! I'm sorry. I completely understand.

When Savannah was in 1st grade & wrote a letter to Santa (which was published in the TriCounty Leader!!!!), she wrote (and I quote):

Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas this year is love.
Savannah R.

I was soooo mortified!

When I talked to her about it later, she said she meant love for the whole world......but it sure didn't sound that way!