Me as a parent

I see pins on Pinterest that are like how to get your kid to eat and why girls are harder to potty train than boys and that completely ridiculous games I don't let my kids play one or whatever and I just think, how stupid is that.

Back in the day (I am really not sure what day that was exactly) kids (and everyone) ate when they were hungry or when food was offered to them, went to the bathroom when they needed to and played whatever games they thought up.

So I am not a mother and I realize the total lack of credibility I have when I say all of this, but from where I sit now, here is how I will parent.

I guess the premise of all of these is that kids are not idiots. They lack knowledge, yes, but they are not idiots. They have a basic sense of survival that they don't get to exercise all that often these days.

If my kid won't eat, that is fine. I'll continue to offer them food and then when their tiny body is either going to pass into a starvation coma or they are going to eat, they'll eat.

If my kid resists potty training...on second thought...I don't think I'll potty train. I'll show my kids how everyone else goes to the bathroom with a toilet and when they are sick of sitting in their own nasty, they'll go to the bathroom in a toilet.

I will not buy my kids shoes until after they are walking - shoes are not an accessory and they aren't even a need or beneficial most of the time.

I got this one from my mom, but I will never lie to them about their performance in something. If they played horribly in their game or recital and they ask...I will tell them. They are not made of fragile glass that cam be shattered at the smallest whisper of hones feedback. If they sucked, I will inform them of that fact. I do not want to be the source of their value, self-worth, yaddayaddayadda...They will earn both their wins and their losses with their efforts and performance not my uttering stupid and false compliments at them. None of this everyone is a winner garbage. You win and you lose. Sometimes you win when you deserve to lose and sometimes you lose when you deserve to win. Learn from it either way.

I will not prohibit my kids from developing all parts of themselves. That means making for them, decisions they have the capacity to make for themselves. That means keeping them from climbing up the wrong side of the slide or climbing trees or playing without shoes on. They have the ability to make decisions and learn the consequences themselves. Sure, I know that if they are too small and try to climb up the tree further than their small body allows them to safely, they might fall and break something but they don't know that. Yeah yeah I will be the one footing the bill so I may be singing a different tune when that becomes a reality...but from my armchair that's what I am going with. They get to learn that firsthand. Not because mom tells them that and won't let them. Ugh.

Think of it this way - you wouldn't withhold food from them to keep their bodies small and cute, so why do so many parents withhold mental food from their kids to keep their brains tiny and cute? School isn't the only mental food out there folks! Making decisions and climbing too high and all that, is mental food. It grows their tiny cute brains into bigger cute brains.

I am not going to make up stupid names for body parts. Girls have vaginas and boys have penises and testicles and both have nipples. My kids will know that as soon as they are learning where their noses and ears and eyes are. If my kids are the ones teaching other kids those things at school...at least they are teaching factually sound information and not the combination of lies, myths, media and childhood curiosity that most kids are getting. You're welcome other parents...hate me if you want.

I am not going to baby them. They are humans who have the right to learn and grow and make mistakes and make good decisions and develop a pattern for their life. Who am I to steal that from them?