You know, you go through your life (in this case about 29 years so far) thinking that you?ve pretty much got yourself figured out. You come to terms with some things (like the fact that you can?t sleep with socks on no matter how cold your feet are or that you can?t say no to a brownie, regardless of what you just ate) and you take pride in others (like your natural ability to organize a party with absolutely no decorations, notice, or real planning and still have a wonderful time).
And then, bam, motherhood hits you. And all the things that you knew about yourself?or at least you thought you knew about yourself?go right out the window. Let?s explore what I?ve learned about myself in these last 2 years, shall we?
I am a planner. I?m not joking when I say that I did not know this about myself. I have always taken pride in my ability to fly by the seat of my pants (another English expression I do not understand, but that doesn?t stop me from using it on a daily basis) and considered myself a go-with-the-flow kind of person. I didn?t make specific plans for the weekend, packed up the car and took off to another state with about five minutes notice, and couldn?t tell you my agenda for the week unless you meant my work schedule hours. When I married Jon, the steadiest, most routine person I know, things started to adjust slightly. We both rubbed off on a each other and molded into a couple that had some plans, but were still relatively spontaneous.
And then Peanut came along (and by came along, I mean we planned out a pregnancy with an exact timeline). You know what I learned about myself from having a baby? That I need schedules and structure and dependability. Being a type-A personality, I realized that I couldn?t control much about this new little addition to our lives so I turned to what I could control -- the scheduling. I scheduled naps, feedings, bedtimes. I planned out our weekends, making sure all family members got time with the little Peanut. I wrote out lists for cleaning schedules in our house.
If the 22-year old me could look at the 29-year old me, I don?t think I?d recognize myself. But you know what? It works for me and for my family. It gives us control in certain situations and frees us to be easy-going (as long as our schedules allow for that, hehe). And most importantly, it works wonders for Peanut, who craves stability.
Along the same lines, I?m also apparently a very strict parent. Don?t get me wrong, I love to have fun, jump on beds, and run around the back yard. But there are some things in our household that are set rules and I don?t back down. Looking back, I guess I could have guessed this one about myself since I?ve always been rather stubborn.
We eat when we eat, we play when we play, we stay within eye sight (ok, this applied to the toddler only) when we?re out in public, and we don?t throw any crying fits. We don?t hit people or pets, we don?t pull the dog?s hair, we don?t throw food on the floor, and when we go to bed, we go to sleep. For now, there aren?t many other rules in our household and everything in between is fair game. When someone (*cough* Peanut *cough*) tries to break said rules, our motto is to ignore things we don?t want repeated or the address the serious things like biting or hitting. The thing that surprised me the most is that I?m able to stand my ground without giving in without much effort. One could say it comes natural to me (this is where being stubborn apparently pays off). And I think that Peanut likes the stability that goes along with set rules; she?s been pretty good about calming down from crying or not starting to cry in the first place from small disappointments (like no TV if mom said no TV) and we?re working through other things (like no throwing food on the ground, even if it is hilarious that Travis will try to fly through the air to catch it).
Another revelation about myself that I?ve had since becoming a parent is that I love sleep. I don?t know if this is an age thing or a parent thing, but omg, do
Source: http://www.blogher.com/what-parenthood-taught-me-about-myself
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