Friday, January 27, 2012

Individual Parenting

When you don't parent full time with a partner, it can be frustrating.  Yes, parenting full time WITH a partner can be frustrating as well.  But I feel like I have less control over the things I don't want my kids doing or exposed to when they are not in my care.  And there's just nothing I can do about it.  I cannot control the way Joe runs his household.  I can talk to him about the things I think are inappropriate that he allows our children to do in his care but that only goes so far.

For example, the other night the kids were complaining about how they were SO TIRED in school and how they almost fell asleep in class!  I said "why are you guys so tired?"  Their response "we were up late watching The Matrix with daddy".  Really?  The Matrix.  Not exactly a movie for kids.  Not to mention staying up late on a school night to watch it.  Do I have any control over this?  No.  No I do not.

Or how he let them watch the whole first season of "The Walking Dead" on Netflix.  Then Jillian would come to my house and be too scared to go to bed alone, crying and everything, because she was scared "zombies were going to get her".  Thanks Joe.

How many conversations have I had with Joe already about the inappropriate things he let's the kids watch?  A few.

I love when I see them on a weekend and they announce "Guess what we had for breakfast!  DONUTS!!"  Yay.  Sugar and fat and sugar.  That's so healthy of you guys.

Joe probably has his complaints about me as well.  Like, how I let Jillian eat her own weight in bacon.  For anyone that doesn't know, Joe doesn't eat pork and it was a rule of his that our kids don't eat pork either.

It's weird for me to think that my kids are having two different upbringings.  "Daddy's" house and "Mommy's" house.  But look, they are not in any physical danger so I can only hope that they grow up with some fond memories of both.

"Hey Jill, remember that time that Dad let us drink beer before our 8th grade dances?  Ha, that was awesome."  "Yeah, Mom blew her lid when she found out."

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