My #1 Lesson on Parenting

When my first baby was born, I was determined to do the very best job of parenting him I could do.
I had had the opportunity to see lots of different ways to parent from growing up among big families and babysitting/nannying said families.

But being mom is really different from being nanny. Mostly because you are never off duty, and now all the pressure for making decisions falls on you.

So I read LOTS AND LOTS of parenting books, and articles, and blogs. I found some really good ones that were helpful for answering things like "will my baby ever sleep off me?!" and "oh my gosh, potty training does eventually work, right?!"

But all of it ultimately came down to this:

The vast majority of parenting is dumb luck and being the most stubborn person in the house.

Seriously.

When things work easily, it has more to do with lucking out with a kid who just reacted in a socially encouraged way than any real work on my part.

Case in point - this kid.

Girl loves people. And food. And sleeping.

So yes, she is very friendly at parties, will eat most anything you put in front of her, and will run off to bed shouting "yea!!!"

But is it from my awesome parenting? Not really.

When things don't go easily (I'm looking at you potty training and nap strikes) the parenting mostly involves just being more stubborn than the toddler.

I have an obnoxious amount of confidence in the fact I'm always going to win.

Because I do.

No I can't make them sleep, but I can insist they stay in their rooms and on the bed. 

Typically, they end up sleeping anyway (because they needed sleep whether or not they wanted sleep.)

Example of a nap stike won by mommy. :)

So you can find advice for all sorts of parenting questions on the internet, but it's really going to come down to deciding if it's something you care about (and thus just keep insisting on doing whatever it is) or if it's something you don't care about (and you just get to ignore that little quirk.)

Simplified parenting for the win!