Over the years, I've been asked many recurring questions about parenting. For some reason, I've felt reluctant to offer my sage advice on this blog...I don't really know why. Maybe because when you've been around awhile, you realize that great kids can come out of dire circumstances, and some seemingly perfect families can produce some real duds.
There are thousands of blogs out there that glorify the misadventures of parenting. I sometimes wonder if I would have had the courage to start a family had I had all this e-information beforehand. Ignorance was bliss. I did not expect my children to fulfill my mothering fantasies, nor I did not expect parenting to be horrible. Of course it's been harder than I thought (at times) but, for me, it has truly been a joyful journey.
That being said, the most common question I get is this:
"How did your kids turn out so well?"
Being raised with modest Norwegian midwestern values makes it hard for me to even write the question, for fear that someone might think I'm getting too high on my horse. Dontcha worry, I'll fall off on my own sooner or later.
This question is usually followed up with, "I mean, what did you do? What is your secret?"
Usually this is asked in a setting like in between church services, in which there is no time to even think about how to boil 20 years of parenting into a few bullet points. Certainly not before the first hymn starts playing.
But the "between services" answer is easy: start small.
To be continued...
