Parenting 101

So, the most important jobs are the most difficult. I fully acknowledge the fact that raising Ave to be a loving, smart, and happy girl will be the paramount of my success. I don't know if I am always up for the challenge. She is more stubborn and sassy than ever. I try to discipline her but sometimes its a joke. I can't and won't spank. We do time out but now she asks to be put in time out while telling me- "Mommy- put the timer on." I lose patience with my bossy girl and at the end of the day- feel overwhelmed with the heavy burden of worrying that I am not doing enough. I pray to Heavenly Father that he will pick up where I can not and help me to be the best mom to her.

Last night, we went to one of the bigger Dallas libraries. We're frequent visitors of our town's small library but I had reserved some books for us through the Dallas library system. Any who, Ave was mad because the Dallas library didn't have the kid's computer that our library does. I went to go check out books for us and I come back to the kid's area where I see that Ave has unloaded 25 or so teen paperbacks onto the table. She told me these were her books that she wanted. I told her they were for bigger girls and we had to help put them away. She starts screaming- not something that's tolerated well in any library.

The nice librarian comes over and tells Avery we must put the books back. Avery starts crying and runs over to me. I explained to her that she was sad because she made a bad choice and got in trouble for it. But, it was o.k. We now needed to clean up and not do it again next time. She is still mad/sad and won't help and I am very flustered at this point.

Ms. Librarian than asks me what I do for a living. I told her I was a nursing student. She then tells me that she thought I was a teacher because I was doing such a good job with my daughter. We talked while we put the books back and she told me that she could tell Ave was smart and strong-willed- which will be very good for her, as she gets older.

I don't know why- but this woman gave me the little extra encouragement I needed. These qualities I see in my daughter now are the exact aspects young women need in their characters. At this point, I want her to mind me and care more about others. I hope the struggle of keeping my patience with her and myself gets easier.