It’s hard to find the light in the pandemic. Especially as a parent. But I do find my parenting to be more conscious. The lack of social contact allows me to hone in on the parenting phase I’m in and the developmental phase my kiddos are in. For example, we’ve been focusing a lot on “personal responsibility” in our house. I’m baffled by the number of dishes and clothes we wash! When everyone was showing their most played Spotify songs of 2020, I really wanted a “count” of the dishes I had washed in 2020. No seriously. And maybe a comparison to the amount I washed in 2019?
My hubby and I got pretty tired of continuing to do the daily chores in a zombie-like fashion day in and day out which resulted in me losing my cool and screaming at my 8-year-old about her lack of responsibility for herself and personal items. I realized that this wasn’t helping any of us and after a good therapy session, I was able to make a plan of attack for our daughter and how to teach her about “personal responsibility.” We started having our 8-year-old take her dishes to the sink, clean her room once a week, help fold and put away laundry, and set days for shower/bath. We are so worried about the effect of this pandemic on our children’s ability to emotionally mature as we are stuck in a house all day every day and they aren’t being exposed to the outside world or people. I just envision us raising big babies and them being 18 and still expecting us to put away their dishes and clothes and only feeling comfortable interacting with their Mommy and Daddy. We have definitely “babied” them more because we want to comfort them during this chaotic time but that isn’t helping them to grow. I guess this is all to say that I have had the time to think a little more clearly about where my kids are in their emotional growth and how I can help them as a parent. It’s always important to give yourself a pat on the back when you’ve had parenting success! So this is me giving myself a pat on the back! I’m not raising “big babies” and will do fewer dishes in 2021, mark my words!!!