I'm not perfect?? WHAT????

Have I ever mentioned that I tend to be prideful? If I haven't, it's because I'm prideful and didn't want you to know that I struggle with things. If I have, well, then I have.

Anyway, I am the type of mom sometimes who tends to compare her kids to other peoples' kids. It's pretty typical and harmless when it's a passing thought, but there comes a point when I realize that I am fixating. Some of you other moms may know what I'm talking about--thoughts like these... "My child would never do that...", "Why can't they control that kid?", "My child is way more advanced than their kid", or perhaps the most infamous "I would never let my kid get away with that..."

Yeah, I have thought all of those things at one point or another. In the last 24 hours. Ok, so maybe it was the last 48 hours, but you are getting my point. Comparing our kids is something that we all naturally gravitate towards. Guess what? We do it with ourselves too! You may be on the "better than thou" side of the spectrum or you may be on the "everyone's better than I am" side, but we all do it. If you are on the super negative side, usually you just get more negative, because if you constantly think and say that you are no good at things or that everyone else can do it better, then you are setting yourself up for failure. If you are on the super prideful side, keep an eye out, because you are going to eat your words. Like me.

Here is my story.

To preface, I have been quite proud of myself the last few months. Kayla, our 2 year old, is potty trained, knows and recognizes all 26 letters of the alphabet and the numbers 1-9, knows her colors, plays nicely by herself, and generally listens when we ask her to do (or not to do) things. So, I was getting quite the big head, thinking that Chris and I must be doing an AMAZING job as parents. Here's the deal. It's great to be proud of your kid. Kayla is sweet, smart, and fun to be around, but you are asking for trouble when you start to think that it is because of your amazing ability. Somehow I am still so easily able to forget that little verse "But by the grace of God, there go I"....

Anyway, the last few days have been....well, humbling.

I took Kayla grocery shopping on Saturday. She didn't listen to me at all, and wanted to run around touching everything in sight. Later that afternoon, at Mass, she stomped around the small room that we congregate in, making tons of noise. Gone was the little girl who would sit nicely on a chair, reading books and coloring pictures sweetly. No, instead she was crawling around on the floor, flailing herself everywhere, and making strange noises while we tried to sing and the priest tried to talk. Add to that, the fact that we (the AMAZING parents) somehow forgot Elise's pacifier, and you have the recipe for disaster at Mass. I left feeling very humbled.

God, however, wasn't done with His lesson. Several weeks ago, Kayla climbed out of her crib. No big deal; after all, we had lowered the sides to prepare her for a "big girl" bed. We simply raised the side back up. Problem solved. NOT. Yesterday, Kayla discovered that she could slide open her closet, and weasel her way out the back side which we did not raise back up because it was against the wall. Again, we figured no big deal. Chris raised the other side up, and we put her to bed for the night. 5 seconds later, her bedroom door opened, and out ran Kayla. She can climb out of the crib now. Even with the sides raised. Great...

But we still had another trick up our sleeves. I had bought some of those child-proof door knob covers several months back. We pulled those out and attached one to the door knob inside her room. She somehow figured that thing out too in a matter of minutes. So we have a big sobbing mess of a child who doesn't want to go to bed and who we apparently can't keep in her room....we even tried spanking, which would have worked on a child like myself. I always wanted to do everything right and hated to be reprimanded, so even the thought of a spanking straightened me out. Not Kayla. You would have to leave a mark for her to even bat an eyelash, and I think that crosses the line of child abuse, so that's not happening. You can call it bribing, because maybe it is, but "positive reinforcement" worked with Kayla when we potty trained, so I used that as my last resort before bursting into tears myself last night. I promised her a sticker in the morning if she laid down, went to sleep, and didn't climb out of her bed.

I guess God decided I'd been humbled enough. Ok, God, I admit, Kayla's not perfect, and I'm not a perfect parent either. But Elise.........now SHE is perfect. She just hangs out, smiles, and somehow fell asleep while Kayla climbed in and out of bed, screaming and crying, turning the lights on and off in the same room.

Right about now, you must all be thinking "What an idiot, there she goes again, thinking her kid is perfect. Won't she ever learn?" No. probably not. Elise woke up in the middle of the night and cried for an hour. And I think I am going to begin sticking post-it notes around the house to remind myself that neither myself or my children are perfect.

And on that note, I have been the prideful mom, and I have been the humbled mom. Just in case you see a "currently being-humbled" mom out there today, give her a break, and don't judge her. Say a prayer for her instead. She needs it. :)