In need of some parenting advice
Have you ever noticed that people who don't even have any children of their own, want to give you parenting tips and parenting advice? Why is it that they believe that it is so easy? Perhaps it is the fact that they don't have any clue how difficult parenting a child truly is. They really don't know, because making a child act appropriately or do the right thing, or listen, is not an exact science. Maybe it does seem simple to those who don't have any kids, but those of us who have them know that there is no rule book, no parenting guide, and no exact science to making kids listen to you. You can tell them what to do. You can coerce them. You can punish, take things away, smack them, threaten them, or put them in their room, but it doesn't mean they will listen. The fact is that doing all these things is no guarantee that your kids will listen. I have 4 kids, 2 who will listen and two that will fight me tooth and nail, doing whatever they want when they want without regard for consequence. They have what I call the iron will. For the most part they are pretty good kids, but when that iron will is flaring, you had better watch out. There is no telling what they will say or do and there is certainly no way of "making them" if they really don't want to and they now know this and tell me to my face that I really can't make them do it if they don't want to.
It may be easy for people who don't have children to look at us and our kids and judge us, but as parents we know that it is not a simple task to raise a child from baby to teenager to adult. It takes a lot of work, tears and heartache to get from one end of the spectrum to the other, and honestly for those of us who have done it, we wouldn't have it any other way. Because for all the tears, there are the moments of joy and pride that never fade. Those moments, where they make you so glad to be a parent, and I am sure that those moments will stay with us a whole lot longer and make the whole process worth it.