Parenting - where I went wrong

* MissAdventure -- I'd offer more concise/blunt/honest feedback/advice but there would be "objections" due to the truth/reality of what I would say.*. Well holyhannah I’m not sure missA needs your feedback/advice

I'm full of admiration for those grans amongst us who, for various reasons, are on the parenting roundabout one more time. It has its challenges the first time around, when we're young, inexperienced and don't know what we're doing. Doing it again in our later years, with all the additional challenges that brings, is a whole new ball game. I take my hat off to you.

As for HolyHannah's post I'd offer more concise/blunt/honest feedback/advice but there would be "objections" due to the truth/reality of what I would say.

I was the ‘soft’ parent and my husband more the disciplinarian. Good cop/bad cop I suppose. Now I look back and think as long as one of the parents has the reins, so to speak, things work out fine. Our daughters are close to us and we all chat away like friends.

Could we have done better? For sure. We made some wrong decisions along the way. Did we love them? Most definitely. Good enough just has to be good enough with parenting I think.

I hesitate to put my 'not perfect' mother post - I don't want to be judged by Holyhannah
My goodness how proud she must be to even give herself that name...........and I would also say how brave she must be too!

MissA you are doing your best in a nightmare situation. I admire you.

A wise person once told me ‘it’s easy to bring up other people’s children - it’s your own you struggle with’!

There’s always one person in RL/online who knows exactly where you went wrong, what you should’ve done, what they know better than you et cetera, blah blah!

What a miserable existence and how lonely to be the only perfect parent around!

I was not a good parent. I loved my child but struggled as a mother for many reasons. I used to think I was just not maternal, but I’m a lovely granny, and cared for GC full time for 2 years. So now wonder if I was just too young and without the emotional skills, following a poor upbringing myself and being married to an alcoholic.

Holyhannah you picked the right name there

Yes I too wish I d done lots of things differently and definitely would now but the situations different I m not with an emotionally draining man who was never around to give any support either physically, emotionally, or financially i can see things clearer now but as MissA has pointed out when you in the middle of the juggling game you are forced to act very differently to when you are on the outside looking in or back

The all knowing HolyHannah wow!

Holyhannah. Nobody sets out to get things wrong do they ?
Are you a perfect parent ?

HolyHannah Well duh. We know!!

I have to offer a different view...

Children mimic and react to the emotional state of their care-givers.

If you are impatient/quick to temper etc. how is a child likely to react? Children do not possess adult emotional coping skills and will react with the behaviors/emotions demonstrated to them by the adults around them.

So, if you want an angry/impatient/irritable child under your care, the way to accomplish 'that' is to be that kind of parent/grand-parent/care-giver... But please, do not blame the CHILD for their reactions/responses.

MissAdventure -- "I'm more tired, more irritable and a million times less patient than I ever was. and i wasn't very patient the first time round"

Children will stress you less if you make your own/adult situation(s) easier. Minor children in your care have ZERO ability to change the family/home/adult dynamic but YOU DO.

MissAdventure -- I'd offer more concise/blunt/honest feedback/advice but there would be "objections" due to the truth/reality of what I would say.

It seems to me that if you have an adult son or daughter who is leading a happy life, has friends, has hobbies and/or interests, has a job she/he values or finds interesting and is good at, has children who are loved and valued, has children who love and value their grandparents and so on and so on, then you have done pretty damn well!

I can’t imagine any parent saying they were perfect. Of course, we all make mistakes but one hopes that they are do not damage the children. Often, one finds the last child most well in their skin as the parent relaxes, etc.
I think the worst thing is criticism from GPS and trying to keep up with the Jones’s. Facebook has a lot to answer for - the yummy mummy, the perfect child who learns the violin at 2, passes GCSE physics at 3 and is fluent in Mandarin at 4...

MissA.... we are doing our best,but like you less energy and the strain and worry of doing it alone,its harder second time around ,thats without the emotional side of it,theirs and ours,we just jog along and do our best,its alll we can do
From one nan to another

Weirdly comforting MissA to hear somebody else was irritable and impatient.! I wasn’t happy in my marriage and I try to blame that. However my boys seem to think I was a fine mother in spite of that. Ithink my DIL is the most marvellous mother, so patient.

Well, I am doing it all over again, and making more of a pig's ear of it than I did the first time around.
I'm more tired, more irritable and a million times less patient than I ever was. and i wasn't very patient the first time round

I’d guess that most of us could think of things we could have done better. We could probably also have done a lot worse. And no doubt we did the best we could at the time.

Parenting doesn’t come with a manual, it’s something you learn as you go along, I’m sure most of us did our best, I think it’s natural to look back and think, I could have done this, or I shouldn’t have done that, I don’t believe the perfect parent exists, I’m there for all my AC and that’s what matters, they know they are all loved dearly,

There's no right or wrong way.......If I think about it, I'm sure I could have done better as a parent. But I choose not to overthink. So should you.
At the end of the day, the Nature vs Nurture debate has gone on forever, with no winner in sight.

I think most of us look back and think that we could have done things better, especially with child rearing. I certainly do. I think I’d write on my report ‘Could do better.’