Friday, November 13, 2015

ABCs of Adoption: M is for Mistakes

Nobody is perfect, but in the days of social media it may seem like that.   There was an article circulating recently about how social media makes us feel worse about ourselves.   Most people only share the positives in their lives, which makes people feel inadequate or that they should be doing more.   Everybody makes mistakes and nobody has a perfect life, even if it seems that way on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or other social media.  

Clearly if you've been reading this blog you know that I share the good as well as the bad or at least I try to.  I don't strive to be a perfect parent, or provide the perfect life for junior.  If we attempted to that we would fail and feel miserable.  We make mistakes as parents, all we can do is pick ourselves up, brush it off,  and move on.  

Dwelling about the mistakes we have made and how we may have accidentally inflicted more damage on our children can cause a person to go crazy.  Recently junior was getting very frustrated when he made a mistake with his homework and would over-react - ripping up papers, threatening to throw his homework in the garbage or throwing pencils across the room.   We took time to point out the times that we make mistakes and how we act when we do.   Learning that mistakes are common and how to handle them is a skill that some people - adopted or not never learn.  

I don't want to be a perfect parent.  I will make mistakes and that is ok.   I will learn from some mistakes and I will repeatedly make the same mistakes over and over again.  I will apologize for mistakes I made, but I won't fall victim to constantly saying "I'm sorry".   Hopefully through this we are setting a good example for junior.  

No comments: