Parenting Against my Nature

I am having been having a rough few weeks of being a parent this month.  My biggest problem is that my little angels are growing up.  Each of them is having a problem of some kind that altogether is draining my energy everyday.  My queen is feeling the same strain.  She has the hardest part which is that she has to live with the royal offspring almost twenty-four hours a day.  I don't envy her, but I also really appreciate what she does. 

Anyways, my youngest prince has been really having some huge temper fits.  He was one of the more easy going kids in the family until just recently.  I don't know what the change is about.  If he doesn't get the answer that he desires the first time he tumbles to the ground in a crying, screaming tantrum.  This is completely uncharacteristic for him.  My queen and I are completely at a loss to explain why he started this behavior.  My only idea is that he is displaying some kind of middle child thing.  He is the closet to middle that we have.  My youngest prince has to be feeling like his older brother gets most of my attention because of his autism.  I guess I am going to have to find a way to make my little prince feel special all by himself.  Simple right?  Here's hoping.

My oldest prince is doing better since we upped one of his medications.  I still haven't started the "talk" with him.  You may think it a little early at the age of ten, but with his autism I want to make sure that we get everything covered before real changes begin.  I have no idea what it will be like.  No one really knows.  My oldest prince's autism could have some effect on his puberty or none at all.  It's like playing Russian Roulette.  I have a fifty-fifty chance it will go off in my face.  Even though this sounds really depressing it is exciting to think that my children are getting older.  I would love it if I could have everything figured out before it changes just once.  I think that is part of the reason I parent with so much anger sometimes.  I am not good with change.  I like to get social situations figured out.  I don't like it when they change.  So, now I have to figure out how to parent despite my handicap.  I guess that is where God comes in.  God knows I need to fight myself, but he also gave me my kids for a reason.  I learn almost as much as I teach.  I learn to parent them and in turn God teaches them how to parent their own kids.  Wish me good luck. 
Happy Holidays and have a good week.

The Name Change

I wanted to let you all know that I have wanted to make this name change for quite a while.  I had tried to get feed back from the Net nobody gave me any ideas.  Anyways, the new name is great.  My queen helped me come up with it.  Enjoy!

Learning to be myself

 I am an avid listener to the Podcast "This I Believe."  I have mentioned in previous posts that I wish to submit an essay to the organization but cannot seem to come up with the right essay.  This weeks essay (which you can listen to by clicking on the title above) was about the life lessons that one man learned while hunting with his father.  I am not an avid hunter so I won't try and bore you with a post about what I might be missing by not hunting.  Instead, I immediately thought of the activities in my own life that I share with my children.

I share the activity of biking my oldest princess and my youngest prince.  I taught both of them to ride their bikes without training wheels within twenty-four hours.  It really was simple.  I was patient and kind with both of them as we worked through their fears and set backs.  I am not normally a patient man especially with my kids.  I am scary often overbearing.  So, it surprised me that I was able to get both my princess and prince from not even being able to balance on training wheels to a two hour journey a few weeks ago.  I am a different man on a bike.  I don't feel frustrations the same way as when I am on the ground.  I understand that I have limits, and I accept that not everyone will be able to ride at the same level.  I forgive myself.  I feel a bound stronger than steel with my kids when I am leading them down the road.

The challenge now is to find that same bounding activity with my oldest prince and youngest princess.  Each one of them presents separate challenges.  My oldest son is Autistic which makes him very unique.  He and I run on similar batteries but they aren't 100% compatible.  My youngest daughter is a fiery red head with spirit.  If you think this is sounds pat it's not.  She is exactly as described.  The challenge with her is merely age.  As young as she is now, I just need to take her the nearest 7-11 to get snacks and that is special to her.  I wonder what she will want to do when she's thirteen?  But isn't that the challenge?  As dad's we have to meet our kids half way in their lives to get to know them and conversely they get to know us.   They see use through our activities and we get to see them.  We just have to be open to trying out what brings our children joy.  Good Luck.