Normal is Just a Word (a really bad one)

   When you become a parent it doesn't matter how many books you read or how many family members give you advice, your child just doesn't listen. When you explain to 2 week old baby that they are supposed to sleep at least 4 hours a night, they laugh and remind you that you aren't in charge any more. When you expect them to walk at 12 months but they stand up and run at 10, you do start to question who writes these books and if they ever had kids. Parenting and book learning are so very different. Granted, it is nice to have a guide, but when baby doesn't sleep through the night until 6 months you have to wonder if you're doing anything right. It's hard.
    And because it's hard some parents take the bull by the horns and make declarations of , "baby will do this!" or " baby won't do that!" Some parents want control. I completely understand rules and needs and schedules, but what if you just relaxed and let baby grow up to be what baby needs to be? So what the little tot wants to sleep all day? It's Sunday. I want to sleep all day too. I have learned a great lesson from my children. I have learned to let go.
   Normal and conventional are words. They are words that I deem "bad". They are words other parents use when they are trying to lay a guilt trip on you. These aren't words that kids know much less respect.
I am now in a position where, sure the kids run the house: between baseball, internships, band practice, theatre auditions, college visits, vacations that I have to pay for but can't go on, and school meetings; all my ME time has become THEIR time. And I have grown so much because of it.
    Because of these kids I get to go places I never would have. I get to meet people that I would have normally passed by. I get new thoughts, new questions, new attitudes constantly. All thrown at me by people who aren't half my age yet. My children are allowed to date people that I certainly never would have been allowed to date. They are allowed to go places I was never allowed to go. They have even lived in neighborhoods I was never allowed to visit. It's called evolving.
   Rules are nice, but so is living. I have changed my mind many times over the past 16 years because of what my children have exposed me to. Rather than tell them How they need to be or What they need to be I have decided to just let them be. My yard is full of flowers and trees. My house is full of movies and games. There are swords inside and out and Barbie dolls without shoes. There is no such thing as proper and right in this house. Whomever they grow up to be, I believe nature outweighs nurture. They are allowed to be honest about who they are.
  There is only the one question,in this house: "Where are we going today." I guess the answer to that question will determine who we all are tomorrow.   We're still evolving. And I couldn't be happier about that.