Parental Philosophy

Most parents I know walk around most of the time with an extreme inner conflict. A question they keep repeating, silently, to themselves, 'Am I doing the right thing?' In almost all criticism, deep down inside of the critic, this question persists. In most parents criticism of other parents this question is loudest.

I recently received two compliments that indicate we might be doing some things right.

As I was walking home after dropping Philip off at kindergarten, one of the mother's who has a son in his class noticed that I didn't have Patrick with me. The Wife is still on maternity leave, I had left him and Mary Kate home with her, I told her. She said we seemed like a good team. That was nice to hear. You can only put so much stock in the perception of others when it comes to your marriage and the raising of your children, but it still made me mildly proud. We are a good team. We work at it and I'm glad it shows.

The second compliment came from another mother, later that week, with a girl in Philip's class. She had worked the class as a volunteer assistant. At the end of the day, she told me, Philip had come up to her and thanked her for coming and helping in class. I guess he was the only student to thank her. She wanted to let me know that I had a very polite son. This made me very proud. It's important to us that our children respect others and behave in a proper way around them. In my opinion, there is far to much inconsiderate behavior in all walks of life.

Like I said, ultimately, you keep you own counsel when it comes to raising your kids. Still though, I'm glad my son is picking up what we are laying down.

And now some pics of the baby.

Mary Katherine smiling in her sleep.

So, Mary Kate is doing well. She had had a horrifying diaper rash for a few weeks. It looks like someone had dragged her behind a car. Everything is better now. She's sleeping well, waking once, maybe twice, a night.

Kisses from big brother, Patrick.

The Boys continue to be attentive and gentle with Mary Kate. They can't wait to play with her. We caught Philip the other day holding her properly, just like we showed him. The problem was, he had picked her up out of her basket, carried her to the couch himself. Without supervision. Without asking us. She was fine, but she's still alittle fragile to be picked up by Philip. Still, no harm. No foul.