I Had No Control Issues Until I Had Children

There’s something you should probably know about me. This may not be a surprise to you, but I like to think I have some semblance of control over my life, my house, my marriage, and yes- even my children.

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When my oldest child was born, it was a rude awakening to me that, as the mom of this little kingdom of our house that not everything would go the way I wanted it to.

For example: pretty much anything to do with the process of parenting.

• I planned to have Ethan no earlier than the 37th week of my pregnancy. He came at 33 weeks and 5 days.
• I was going to nurse all of my babies. My body didn’t make hardly any milk.
• My children were all going to be “potty trained in a day” because I read the book and followed the program. Not one of them was potty trained in a day and one who is 4 years and 8 months old still doesn’t stay dry at night.
• They would somehow help me clean the house and I would let them learn how to clean the bathrooms and fold the laundry without doing it over again when they were not looking because it wasn’t quite right.
• I was going to do creative projects with them, but then I realized creative=messes and play-doh ground into the carpet.
• Most importantly, when I asked my children to do something, each of them would do it without complaining because I am the mom and that’s what kids are supposed to do. (What? This isn’t true?)

There is nothing in the world like parenting to bring you to your knees literally and figuratively.

When you are sitting on the floor in the bathroom promising a trip to Disney World to your child if they will JUST POOP IN THE TOILET!

When you are pulling your hair out wondering how to explain long division.

When you finally realize the number of things that you can actually force your child to do is very, very small.

That’s when you realize that God uses parenting to mold your character more than He expects you to create perfect character in your children.