Parenting

Parenting is challenging. All the time. Just when I feel like I get it down, something changes, like dealing with 4 girls waking up at night instead of just the one I was expecting.

Last month when my sisters were here for a visit we talked about parenting, specifically getting babies to go to sleep on their own. My sisters exclaimed about my expertise. Ha. My expertise is sometimes more a matter of talk than real life application. My sweet Sophie prefers to sleep next to me or in my arms like any other baby in the world. She hasn't been napping well, but I think its a ploy so I will hold her more and so I do, which means nothing else gets done. And did I mention 4 girls waking up at night? I had 3 unexpected night time visitors who climbed into bed with me - Kurt is out of town and I was too tired to resist. As proof of their recent sleeping, or more correctly non-sleeping habits , I was grateful they came in while I was already awake nursing Sophie otherwise my night would have had so many more interruptions. Then Olivia and Nyah were up by 6:00 a.m. demanding eggs and sausage. Even Dade (our dog) wanted his breakfast. I just want to sleep. I don't know why they aren't sleeping, except that they were very hungry this morning. Note to self: taking kids to the park in the evening so they are tired at bedtime also apparently means they need to eat more before going to bed. As if I don't already spend most of my waking hours feeding everyone.

Anywho, anyways . . . don't go feeling sorry for me. I'm not trying to complain, merely point out that I, with 5 kids and 9 parenting years, I find parenting challenging. The point of this post is to share some articles I've recently read that have helped me. They have all been swirling around in my head, helping me reach new heights in my parenting skills.

Here they are:

Compression, Expansion, Illumination - Challenges help us grow.

Irritation is an Invitation - an amazing look at what causes irritation - gives new meaning to feeling irritation towards your kids.

Solving Sibling Squabbles - while I don't agree with all of Raising Olives parenting advice, I thought this articles was a very practical how-to for handling all those squabbles kids get into. Of course it happens in my house. All the time. Sometimes I squabble too.

Keeping the Peace - why forcing kids to share doesn't work. At our house we try to respect other people's possessions and we take turns with community toys.

Hope you have a beautiful Saturday!! I hope I get to take a nap later.