Unlabel Parenting

Here I go... my first post about parenting styles, raising a tiny human and trying to keep your own sanity, kind of.

I've been getting little ideas and thoughts about writing a post about parenting styles for the past week. I truly feel like this could be a complete blog topic, rather than one post, but there's a few things that have really been irking me as a mom and as a person.

It starts with my complete distain for parenting labels. Although I've only been a mom for a short time I've had my fair share of labels.

From being called a "crunchy mama" to a "helicopter parent"  to an "attachment parenting hippie"... I'm not quite sure my official title. 

And while trending topics like attachment parenting and gentle parenting are totally necessary to understand aspects and styles of parenting they should not be taken to mold us as parents or label us as specific kinds of parents. I really could go on and on about how ridiculous I think classifying yourself as a parent to fit a certain kind of mold is but that's besides my real point here.

I guess really my main point, without going off on a tangent for the rest of my life, is to really just be the best parent you can be, period.

Stop labeling yourself, stop comparing yourself to the mother next door or the mom on social media with an outrageous following. Stop freaking out about what brand of cereal you're feeding your kids and stop letting the judgments of others turn into an added pressure on yourself as a parent and as a person.

Be present with your children and stop endlessly trying to fix them. 

I think the added labeling of parents pin balls against a constant need to diagnose our children. I'm constantly seeing gadgets, methods or ways to turn that bad sleeper into a "good" one or ways to keep your children more quieter, less cranky and frankly less of a pain in the ass.

If we can stop labeling ourselves as parents, we might be able to stop labeling our children, stop trying to change them or "fix" them and sincerely let them be little. 

This past year I have truly learned the meaning of watching your child grow before the blink of an eye. And I may be a little late in my New Year's resolution but this year I'm going to stop trying to be that parent I want to be and just be the best parent I can be. I'm going to not fixate on how artistic or awesome I want my child to be, and let him be him. I'm going to let him be little and I'm going to officially unlabel myself as a parent.

And when we have days like tonight, when we throw every last morsel of a delicious well balanced meal that I cook and insist on having frozen eggos for dinner because we're teething and because well, we're one... I'm going to say, it's cool. Tomorrow's another day. And tomorrow my babe will be another day older. And tomorrow I will have one less precious day ahead of me raising him.

- Kayla