The Slippery Slope of Sloppy Child-Management

Once upon a time there were so many things I thought I would never-EVER do in child rearing. But I've learned that child management is a tough gig and sometimes you get a little sloppy in your work.

I truly believed I would never:

• Be impatient with my children (especially in public! Why do these people even have kids if they are going to treat them like this!! These are incredible gifts from the Lord!)
• Let my kids eat McDonalds (have you seen the pink slime 'beef'?)
• Speak harshly to them for no reason 
• Give them treats that are terrible for them ('oh you want cereal? cereal is just sugar? well at least it's not ice cream. Oh, you want that with milk? Sure.')
• Let them eat gross things in the car that would turn my car into the final resting place for crumbs and unknown sticky messes
• Let them go to bed later than scheduled- no matter what the circumstances! Bedtime is BEDTIME!
• Let them eat Mac N Cheese FOR DINNER (lunch maybe, but dinner??)
• Take them someplace they really didn't belong. If the babysitter cancels then parents should stay home!
• Blame my children for any kind of tardiness
• Let them watch two movies in one weekend
• Incentivise   Bribe them with treats
• Beg them to please leave me alone so I can close my eyes for 37 seconds in the middle of the morning

But lately....lately (insert photo of me doubling in size), it's been pretty hard to keep my commitments to never, ever be a sloppy child manager. Don't get me wrong, I still have standards, but times are tough (insert photo of me wide awake at 11:30 PM when all I want to do is be asleep) and nobody is perfect. I can use this space to celebrate the standards I still keep or I can tell you that actual-real life- middle of the summer- 8 months pregnant-babysitter canceling- parenting of two children is a lot harder than what I imagined when I pictured bringing these two lovely children home (mind you, when I pictured it I was not pregnant and nor did I imagine I would be even in my most indulgent fantasy-land portrayal).  But now, here we are. Home for the summer and a few things have changed. None of the changes will kill anything except my small portion of lingering pride, which obviously needed to go.

Hope your summer is a little more standard-keeping than mine is!