Patience in Parenting..

I am sitting up with my daughter, and she is screaming her head off. As I'm sure with most parents (at least Mother's) I feel absolutely retched not knowing what to do to help her! Seeking guidance from a "professional" I've come to find that I have absolutely no patience for my time being wasted. Here is a nurse that is supposed to be helping and all she does is take down the information I give her and tell me to keep an eye on my daughter. Um, excuse me, that's what I've been doing all day! I called you because my eye keeping isn't helping her!
I've come to find though, that the true test of patience comes not with adults but the actual child. When they are infants, you are tested by being sleep deprived, time deprived and just plain ...DEPRIVED!(Sorry,Thesarus writers, deprived is deprived!) Then they start to sleep through the night. Hallelujah! Parent has their life back!!!....WRONG! Two days later they start teething and you wish they were newborns again waking you up every two hours to eat instead of crying non stop until Timmy and Tammy the Tooth decide to make an appearance! Repeat for the next 6 months to 1 1/2 years!
Right around 2 years of age they start talking, and they learn every parents dreaded word "NO!" "Sweetheart, stop painting the walls neon green..." "NO!" oh boy...Hope you like Day Glo! This will be their favorite word from this point til they are either 18 and far enough away for Parent to no longer hear it, or they have their own children and are served a wonderfully warm dish of payback!
At three, they are learning to discover who they are as a person...and what that round white thing in the bathroom is for! Some are terrified of the loud monster in the bathroom! Others are curious...from a distance. Still others hop up there and get to it! But God forbid, the one day you put them in "big kid undies" and go to the supermarket, their bowels fail them and everyone looks at the wet spot on YOU wondering who your potty trainer was.
This continues until they are 5 and Parent can ship them off to school, so they can interact with other Day Glo using, bowel failing children!
With all their unique personalities, their good sides and bad., children are a blessing. But someone, somewhere has to have a manual for when these angels decide to run through Costco at age 4 bare naked, screaming they want a candy bar..or a toy...or some thing that will be taken home, and promptly broken, and said child will be destroyed...Or when your baby brings home "that boy" and you have nothing to say beyond "over my dead body!!"
As a parent, you learn to take the good with the bad, knowing that this soon will pass! You WILL get your life back...piece by slow piece, and then....the best part of all...You can spoil their kids, and send them home to Mom and Dad so THEY can put up with markered walls, sugar highs and loud obnoxious electronic toys.
Ah, Parenthood, a dish best served CRAZY!