Practice Makes Perfect.

Today is Sunday... As a mother, it's just like every other day of the week. Except, that "Daddy" is home the whole day! It's nice when he's home. He spends time with the babies and I get to use both of my arms. haha! So what's going on in this family? Well, Gracie is in a phase where she tears everthing into pieces, anything made of paper. Tissue paper, newspaper, notebook paper, and her favorite of all: Toilet paper. Yay. I don't really get upset, I mean she's TWO. My mind set about it is: oh well, tell her it's not what it's for and move on. I get called a 'pushover" and some people like to make comments about how my daughter is going to run over me... I guess I just see parenting as something other than discipline. It's more of GUIDANCE to me. Punishing my daughter for being curious and having thoughts of her own isn't my idea of being mommy. I'm not raising a warrior. I'm trying to raise a nice, thoughtful, smart, brave, and outgoing young lady. Saying "NO, NO, NO!" all the time is kind of negative. And I see it to be a constant self esteem stabber. Not my thing. Because seriously, if I dont punish her for it, what is she going to do later in life? Go around tearing up her neighbors toilet paper in the middle of the night just for fun? I doubt it. So, obviously you can guess: I'm a passive parent. I don't really know any labels for it. Not any nice ones anyway... Some people call it "Attachment Parenting", I think. But I would be attached to my babies no matter what world I lived in.. so I just don't see the point in calling it that... To make it clear without labels and gray areas; I am a mother who likes guiding and giving positive comments and encouraging independence. Rather than using their childhood as a time to sculpt a person with negativity and constant ridicule. For instance, I don't see a problem with letting my daughter try to pour her own drinks. Sounds good to me! But some people like to tell her no, she'll just make a mess and to just stop. I don't. I let her try, I show her HOW and tell her she "did a great job" at it. Even IF she makes a mess. You cant live LIFE without making mistakes... That's how we learn who we are and how things work. "Practice makes Perfect".