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Monday, March 18

Mothering vs. Parenting

I'm not a perfect mother, but I'm not foolish enough to think I'm anything less than a good one.

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Sometimes, I'm too impatient, too temperamental, too tired, too busy, too overwhelmed, too distracted. But I kiss the booboos, teach the manners, apologize when wrong, lead by example, relish the giggles, and fiercely love my babies.

Mothering my littles is easy, natural, and despite my stumbles on short tempers, weariness, and second guessing….. I know within it all, I thrive in the good of it's roll.

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The last few weeks, I've woken up to the fact that all my doubts of being a mother, aint got nothing on having just scratched the surface of my path's journey in being a parent.

I place more security, than I should, in the comforts I find with a cause and effect approach to most things. This way of thinking, I feel, compliments my mothering nicely, however, I'm learning, it's less flattering to my method of what I would consider successful parenting.

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The last few weeks, Wesley has been lying, sneaking, and track covering… I know I mauled over my approach to handling this longer than I should have, for two reasons… One, I secretly hoped my subtle talks to him about truth, trust, and kindness would be enough for him to change the course of his behavior and secondly, I didn't want to forge this path, take that irreversible first step, acknowledge we're at this stage …. I wanted to burry my head in the sand.

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The reality is, as appealing as it seemed, we have never been lazy parents, and just because the waters were rippling more than usual, didn't mean we were going to start now.

I'm sure as the situations change, so will our approach to handling them, but I feel confident we at least set a good precedence from where we'll start.

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As of Saturday, team Richardson has had their first official "grounding".
The knots in my stomach that I've been suffering for the last few weeks, have subsided. This factor alone telling me, we may not be perfect in our parenting, but we've at least taking the first few steps on a path to being good ones.

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