Some who read this will indeed walk away shaking their head in disgust. To them I say, Enjoy your sleep! I have been functioning quite well on a lack of sleep, few mishaps have been created, however, along this path there are some of those bumps that will need fixing. I am fully prepared for this and will one day correct all things wrong.
Because I understand the need to talk through childhood memories I have begun putting money away for my dear children to use when they come to the realization their childhood was messed up. There is no doubt they will come to this point.
A recent example of poor parental behavior...
About 5 weeks ago our lovely family was riding home in the van. The used to be youngest child ripped his belt off and began to move about the vehicle. I was quick to "gently" reprimand such conduct. Then I began down a road that will one day be discussed by each of my four older children to a licensed therapist.
"We once had another family."
Strange looks about the car.
"It's true another family. We once had four perfect children and we loved them dearly. They listened, they never fought, they were kind to each other and they were perfect."
At this point Kjel is tossing strange glances my direction but I of course continue down the path.
"Oh, we loved them."
Children are now beginning to question....
"Where did they go?" "What were their names." "I've never seen any birth certificates, where are those?"
"Sadly, one day one of them took their belt off and the authorities took them away from us because we were unfit parents. They now live with another family and we haven't seen them since."
"NOT TRUE!" the older children proclaim.
"Very true, very sad. We don't usually talk about them because it pains us so much to realize that we had perfect children. They ate all their food and hung up their clothes."
I continue in this manner of elaborating about our prior perfect family and covering grounds of why we no longer have proof of their existence. At this point the kids have bonded together and decide they should all take their belts off. My first reaction was, no, don't do it we want you to be safe and then, I come to my senses and decide to support them in their endeavor to remove their seat belts and find a new family.
This conversation has come up occasionally since and the kids seem to have dispelled in their minds what is believed to be a myth. I will forever wonder about the first family. The one that loved each other and didn't just put up with each other.
In some families they come up with a mission statement. Ours is: "We are a tolerant family" Meaning we tolerate each other. I guess that's what you get with a house of testosterone.
I feel better now. At least when the kids talk to their therapist they have the ability to pull up this post and can share the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.