Important Parenting Lesson

So. I am sitting here on this rainy afternoon learning a VERY IMPORTANT PARENTING LESSON. This blog will have less to do with newborn photography (though I will be sure to include lots of pictures to make up for it) and more to do with this very important parenting lesson that I am in the midst of learning right now. See, what I am learning is that children cannot be trusted – note that this is a very tongue-in-cheek statement because there is actually a much deeper, much more important parenting lesson but, because I haven’t yet worked through the frustration and irritation, those words are what came out of me first. However, that is not actually the important parenting lesson I’m learning today…you’re going to need a little back story…

I am the mother to three delightful little cherubs. Thing One and Thing Two have lived with me a loooong time and they have learned that it’s easier to play along with the rules because when mommy is happy, everybody is happy. Thing Three hasn’t quite learned that lesson yet and that is why I have gray hair (not true – they’ve all contributed to that – please see above where I said I am very frustrated and irritated right now…things aren’t exactly being attributed fairly…I’ll work on it). At the beginning of last week, I asked Thing Three to clean her room. She acquiesced and I naively thought that it would get done…and it did…as long as my definition of “clean your room” means shove everything either in your closet or under your bed so that it looks clean even though it actually isn’t. My mistake…and the beginnings of unearthing this very important parenting lesson. Breathe in. Breathe out.

I’ll spare you the details because they’re gross (think along the lines of socks/underwear that haven’t seen the light of day – or the inside of a washing machine – since sometime in the summer so what has she been wearing all this time and LOTS and LOTS of mouse droppings –> see recent Amazon order of humane mouse traps because I can’t kill another living thing though I’m strongly considering it at this moment) and just summarize that we have 3 huge piles of laundry to wash and lots and lots of giveaways in our future. Thing Three will now be rotating between a limited number of shirts, pants, underwear and socks and I have assigned myself the delightful task of overseeing that –> pray for me because I can barely manage myself and had so hoped that Thing Three would follow along in the independent footsteps of One and Two. Better luck next time. (There will be no next time.)

That was a rather snarky back story. I’ll work on it. The LESSON. The very important parenting lesson. I knew we’d come around to it at some point and I will try really hard to drop the snark and actually be an empathetic human for the tail end of this blog post. The very important parenting lesson that I have learned today is that it’s not fair to expect an eight year old to manage what a grown adult is loathe to manage. I need to be better at clearing out last season’s clothing so that she isn’t overwhelmed by a lot of unnecessary extras. I need to be better at only procuring what we need and sweetly saying no thank you to offers of hand-me-downs that we don’t need. I need to be better at overseeing chores rather than getting immersed in my own stuff and leaving the un-fun parenting tasks undone until they get to the point of frustration and irritation. Yes, I can absolutely expect responsibility from the eight year old. No, I shouldn’t expect that she wouldn’t need supervision through it.

This was a lot of information. It definitely came from a real place of actual life rather than a fairytale version of perfection that doesn’t exist anywhere. And it was more than one important parenting lesson…but maybe more than just I can benefit from them. And so now I will share these adorable photos from Talia’s newborn session and breathe past the frustration. If you made it this far, thank you and bless.

P.S. If you want to take a peek at Talia before she before she made her grand entrance into the world, you can do that here ❤️

Liz Viernes Photography is based in Silver Spring, Maryland, and specializes in maternity, fresh 48, posed and lifestyle newborns and first year milestone portraits.

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