Butterfly and Eskimo kisses, hugs and little songs completed last evening with 3 of our 4 daughters which made for such a sweet bedtime scene. Moments later however, our oldest was letting me have it. Rolling of the eyes, calling of names, the whole 9 yards. Make it 11. She’s almost there.

There’s aren’t many days where I feel too successful as a parent. And if an am was awesome, and I am feeling pretty good at what’s happening, the pm then mocks me and reminds me to be modest.

Ok, so the other day on our umpteenth trip to the downtown library, our 4 yr old decided to check out only one book. Just one. An ice skating guide book. Usually, it’s so many books I am tripping over them trying to cross the street back to the car while visions of the Coffee Cat nearby taunt me. The girls are asking to go into Old Navy, as I work to pick up another fallen book. Side note – why in my right mind would I enter a store with 4 kids and no carts??!! It’s a trap.
Ok, so as I am checking out the book she carefully selected, I mention to her that it is in Spanish. She is swift to respond, “I checked this out for you. You know Spanish, but you are very bad at ice skating. Read it. You need it.” 😂 ouch. Just ouch.

But isn’t this most of parenting??!!!

My God. There are a few things each of us parents may be good at and the rest, we need to read up, practice over and over, listen to our intuition, write a new path for ways we think and act and heck, maybe even check-out the cliff notes!!!

So while ice skating isn’t a huge priority for me on my improvement list, though I be a big embarrassment to our daughters apparently, there are plenty of things I work to improve daily to be the parent I want to be for each of our daughters.

Some of these things hold old history. They seem so ingrained in how I act or react, they are difficult to shake free. And these are heavy for me to carry.

Others are new challenges. Because of the new tween we have living in our house, or the 9 yr old who believes SHE is CEO of casa de Stump. Or the 7 yr old, that insists on wearing the same two shirts and pants over and over or that sweet 4 yr old, that empties glue bottles on carpets before my
coffee is even made. “Coffee Cat, I need you!!”

Whatever. Some are easy challenges. Some, not so.

I guess we all need people in our lives who can remind us what we need to work on, and what we might be good at too. Balance, and persistence. I trust these values will fair well in this parenting gig and hopefully throughout life.

So, if the meal you carefully orchestrated gets spit out on the table by your toddler or you are temporarily shut out of a room by your emergent tween, well- know you aren’t alone. And when you get the butterfly kisses, the homemade collage or the nice words said about you – soak it up!!!! These are well-deserved.

I best go for now, the ice skating book is staring right at me.

Buenos Dias Amigos.