My A To Z Of Parenting (and how I have survived so far)

Raising a family of boys has been a mish mash of trials and tribulations, fun and games, ups and downs and the most wonderful experience of my life. I have truly been blessed in life, honoured to be trusted by God with raising these four wonderful boys.
I have not always had success with my parenting, I am in no way an expert and I have had many failures let me tell you, and even though I now have 20 years of parenting under my belt, each day I continue to learn and discover new ways to parent, and hopefully give my boys the skills to live the happy, fulfilling life that they deserve.

I don't think that you can ever learn enough about parenting, so over the next few days, I have decided to put together an A to Z list of words and explanations of what I have learnt so far while raising my four boys

A is for attitude 

This seems to gradually grow, and before you know it, it has just about OUT grown the child and taken over. It's like the inner monster finds its way out and turns the once innocent  into raving lunatics.

However being a mum to sons only, I have found that over the years I have had to change my attitude and outlook on life to raise these boys to the best of my ability. 

B is for brave     

Raising boys is fun, crazy, full of adventure and the unexpected, so being "brave" is a huge part of raising boys. I admit that being brave {like them} has not always been my strong point, but ending up being the only female in our household has made me have to dig deep for courage at various times in my parenting journey.

C is for charm and caffeine

I have been guilty of letting my boys "charm" take control of my parenting at times over the years. {bad parenting, or the easy way out ?} but sometimes those eyes, they just get ya. To recharge and start again I recommend a good strong cup of coffee, it seems that parenting and caffeine go hand in hand : )

D is for drama

Boys, just like girls can be "drama queens kings" and this is when I tend to loose the plot, after all the drama should be all mine... right ? 

I may or may not have at one time or another said "toughen up princess" bad mumma is me.

E is for earplugs

Ahhhh I am so grateful that the humble "earphone" was invented, me time would not be possible without them. Just to drown out the boys and their noise every now and then is pure heaven.

F is for food

How is it possible to go through so much ? There is always a bum sticking out of my fridge and at times I think that because of this I would be able to recognise my boys bums in a line up more than if  their faces were shown LOL no I am serious....maybe I need shares in Woolworths !

G is for grateful

My family is the one thing that I hold dear to my heart. Without them I am nothing. They are my entire world and the fact that they are mine to love to cherish and keep safe, to guide and watch them grow makes me beyond grateful each and every day of my life.

H is for honesty

Being honest is always best no matter what the situation, and when it comes to children I believe its no different. I have always been honest and forthright with my boys, without putting to much on their shoulders of course. I believe that if I am honest with them then it is possible that they will be honest with me. I am not blind however and realise that this is not always the case. Kids are kids and always will be. But if I am willing to teach them that honesty is the best policy then maybe it is a trait that they will continue to have throughout their lives.

I is for Individual
Each of my boys are "individual" and so I believe that although they ALL must obey and live by the same rules, I have found at times that each of them need to be parented in different ways. Each child understands and absorbs things differently and so on more then one occasion I have had to approach certain situations with a different angle to accommodate the child that I am dealing with at the time.

J is for junk
They collect it, stash it and wont give it up. My house is over run by "boy stuff" its stuffed under their beds and piled high in their wardrobes......Its almost school holidays and time to Spring clean LOOK OUT BOYS : ) I am on the clutter free war path !

To be continued :)