Day 33...Don't grow up!

How much is too much? Every day I see many parents doing all that they can to protect their child from harm. But when it starts to get to the point of protecting their child from life...it becomes too much. Anyone who either has kids or works with kids knows that the transition of taking your kid to school/daycare for the first time is equally hard on the child as it is on the parent. But there are three types of parents that seem to cause the most trouble: the helicopter parent, the parent in denial, and the Houdini parent.

I often wonder if I will ever become the dreaded helicopter mom, hovering around my child, fussing over them, insisting on doing everything for them, all while I fasten a helmet and pillows all over their body to make sure they don't get hurt. I doubt I'd ever be that bad, however, I'm noticing that a lot of the parents that work at the school where their kids are....their children turn out to be some of the worst monster children ever! With their mom's hiding in every corner, the children get even craftier about finding secret ways to break the rules.

The parent in denial is the parent who so desperately tries to convince themselves that they are the only solution to their child's needs. They linger waaaaaaaaay to long when dropping their kid off the morning, causing the goodbye to be this drawn out awful massacre of false discipline. "Okay, your teacher is here to help you to your class. You need to stop crying and go with your teacher...." The child keeps crying. "Oh...well...okay. Mommy will walk you to your class." So the mom picks the child up and takes him to the class. "Okay. Mommy needs to go. I'll see you later." The child cries harder. "Oh..well..okay. Mommy will wait until you've settled down." And on and on it goes! What does this teach the child? It teaches him that it's okay to make a scene and cry absurdly because mommy will give him what he wants! Moms out there....I know you want to see your child happily bounding off to class, but until they learn to settle themselves down when you're not there, they will never adjust!

Lastly, the Houdini parent. They are the parents that will drop off their crying child and drive off into the sunset before their kid even knows what's going on. There is a delicate balance that needs to happen between the Denial parent and the Houdini parent. Where one clings too much, the other just drops off. Both situations do nothing with helping the child transition to the new situation. When the Houdini parent runs off without a word, their kid will go into sudden panic mode wondering where mommy or daddy went, and why did they leave them in this big scary place?!?

The bottom line is, all three parental types may have good intentions, but sometimes parents can try a little too hard. But let's face it: the fountain of youth doesn't exist, so why try to stop kids from growing and living? As for me, I don't know how I'll be with Pickle. Already I worry to much about him/her and I haven't even conceived him/her yet! So who knows how heart wrenching it'll be when I hear their little cry as I leave them at school for the first time. I guess we'll see if all my research is going to give me awesome skills....or cause me to be super paranoid as I create a baby bomb shelter!


Let's see...pillows, and knee pads, and elbow pads, and a helmet, and goggles, and....Pickle?....where did you go?....