Parenting, the MamaHen's Momma Way

*** I'm not sure why, but I cannot get the paragraphs in this post to space out. I'll try it again after church. Sorry its hard to read.

Yesterday I was in the library and I walked past a book called "What Is Your Parenting Style?" I choked back a laugh as I thought about my parenting style:

I start off well in the morning and by 8:30 pm I am tired.

That pretty much sums it up. My kiddos range from 11 to 3 and that is a lot of different needs and ages to deal with. I am constantly switching gears. I am not really complaining, it is just the way it is. And I cannot wait to have to switch gears for a new baby. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a baby in the house. Everything slows down by necessity and that is a good thing.

But anyway, on the way home I thought about my mom's parenting style. I really don't think she gave much thought to parenting styles and it served her well. My mom's parenting style was:

I am the parent and you are the child.

My mom was married at 17 and had me at 19. I don't think she had a lot to time to sit around and evaluate "Am I doing this right or this wrong?" She just did it. And she did it well.

For example,

~She always did special things for each one of us. I remember her checking us out of school in the middle of the day, taking us to a restaurant, just the two of us, eating lunch, and then taking us back to school. That was the biggest treat.

But talk back, have a smart mouth, or argue. There was a discipline for that.

~She was so loving and took such good care of us when we were sick. She would go out of her way to make us feel better. As a mother now, I know how terrible it is when the kiddos are sick. You just want to take it all away from them.

But throw a fit in the grocery store (or anywhere for that matter). There was a discipline for that.

~She cooked, cleaned, washed our laundry, and did thousands of other things that we never said thank you for. Yet she still did them over and over and over because she loved us.

But if you had the opportunity to sit with your friends in church and you wouldn't stop fidgeting and talking, then horror of horrors, my mom had a discipline for that. Which involved getting up and walking to the front of the church where the two little girls were and sitting down between us. I will tell you that only had to happen once.

I could list a thousand more ways my mom was a great mom. She was not perfect, but we knew she was the parent and we were the child. And that is a very safe place for a child to be. So to sum it all up I think my mom's parenting slogan was something along Barbara Barker's parenting slogan:

"Love 'em a lot, feed 'em a lot, and spank 'em a little."

It worked for my mom.