three things make a post

[moominmolly]

Why did nobody ever tell me that tea is so much better than coffee? The little cafe near my gym has a blend called "Somali Tea", which is some random black tea with cardamom pods in it, and I drank that with cream while taking the train to work and I felt extremely Right.

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I am not always a saintly parent. I love Natalie fiercely, but sometimes my patience is short. I snap at her. I have petty arguments about things that don't matter, because I forget that they don't matter. I do things I'm not proud of. It's my job to find the graceful and harmonious way out of a situation, but sometimes I just don't have the tools at hand and things suck. Sometimes things suck a lot. I wish that for just one day I could hear my mother say, oh, honey, it's okay. I did that to you, too. It's okay.

In the meantime, it's really, really good to have a husband who understands, and a child who can say, "I'm sorry, I really wanted to listen but my body wasn't listening to me and I don't know why." Yeah. I've been there. Sometimes I don't know either.

--

Which should I do: 100 days of pictures, with one taken and posted every day, or 60 days of portraits, one posted every day, but with portraits taken in batches? There are benefits and drawbacks to both, from this side; which would be more interesting to see?

Comments

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

I have memories, not specific but general, of my parents sometimes being less than saintly and even with or around me when I was a kid, and I still think they were awesome at parenting in general and I always knew they loved me more than I could imagine.

If you aren't a human being around your kid, your kid will not know how to deal with human beings. I am not advocating a pedagogical full display of the worst of humankind every day, of course. But I don't want a kid who never gets mad or upset, because sometimes there are reasons to be. I don't want a kid who is afraid or frozen if I (or someone else they love) am mad or upset. And so when I'm mad or upset or things are otherwise sucking, or shortly thereafter, I try to talk about it, and apologize if something I did warrants it, and tell her I love her.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I try! I try to talk about it when it happens. And all I can do is try to do the right thing and, when I screw up, try to talk about it afterwards. I also try to acknowledge when I've put her into a really difficult situation (like, say, a quiet funeral service after a long, dressy viewing with no other kids around and nobody willing to run around and play).

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

Do you have memories of how your parents were when you were growing up? If they were not always perfect but were globally great, could that be read as a secret hidden message for you, for when you grow up, that you're doing okay with N.?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

That might be the best thing I've ever read.