A Kick in the Pants from Mr. Aesop

I've been child-rearing for an entire year now. Twelve complete months of the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the sweet and the smelly, the messy and the slightly-less-messy. And while I've been caught in the crossfire of decision paralysis related to food, naptime, milk, and sleep, I've never questioned whether I'm a good mother. That said, when I came across the succint little fable "The Crab and Its Mother" I felt the weight of parenthood in a fresh way.

An Old Crab said to her son, "Why do you walk sideways like that, my son? You ought to walk straight." The Young Crab replied, "Show me how, dear Mother, and I'll follow your example."
The Old Crab tried but tried in vain, and then saw how foolish she had been to find fault with her child."

Thinking through meals, activities, childcare, toys, schooling, routines, and books to read is of course important and influential, but the words I say, the actions I take, and the responses I display is the real curriculum in these younger years. So when normal frustrating events occur...like when it takes me way-too-long to open the baby wipes, or when I misplace three different items in the span of two days, or when I'm running late for a meet-up, or when I forget something and have to run back into the house for a third time, I want to go easy on myself rather than falling into an angry, melancholy, disparing, or finger-pointing headspace. 

I want to be a patient, logical, kind, self-controlled, good-humored woman who will in turn model these traits for NLW. I know he already has bits of me in his demeanor and personality, but I want to keep rubbing off on him in the best possible way knowing that he's likely to follow in my crabby footsteps. 

You can't have your crabcakes and eat them too,

-SJW