The thing with parenting that gets me the most is that just when you think you have something figured out, it changes on you. This is especially true when you have more than one kid. It’s like working with multiple colleagues. If you’ve ever managed a team at work you know (if you are a good manager) not everyone works the same way. You may be able to bark directions at one employee while you have to hold the hand of another. Some team members may need general directions once and they are off, while others need explicit detail and must check in multiple times throughout the process.
It’s not different with kids. I knew when I was in a classroom that I couldn’t treat all my students the same if I expected to get their best from them. Why then, am I constantly caught off guard when each of my kids needs entirely different things from me in order to perform their best? Maybe because they are genetically linked I expected them to fall under the same general parenting guidelines.
Joke’s on me I guess.
My three kids are very similar in a lot of ways, but since personality is not completely determined by X and Y chromosomes, they are just different enough to keep me on my toes.
So it is a new day and I need to figure out a new way to deal with issues I have already faced twice. Unfortunately for me, it seems past experience doesn’t count.
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