Tying a shoe

There are certain things that parents neglect to tell new parents in an effort to not scare them.  Had I known that there were certain hard things I had to teach my children I would have approached them differently. 

Here you will find my compiled list of hard things parents MUST teach their children:

Please note, my oldest child is 9.  This list only reflects hard things I have taught my children up to the sweet age of 9.  I know there are MANY more hard things I am completely unaware of.  Feel free to add yours in the comments below so that I can plan accordingly.

1. Sleep

Teaching an infant to sleep is hard.  AH! You thought they did that all on their own? Wrong.  Sure, they can sleep ONE hour on their own, but teaching them to sleep longer periods of time takes patience.  I thought I had learned to be patient.  Oh how I was wrong.  I was tired.  I wanted nothing more than to get three consecutive hours of sleep; however, both my sweet boys had other plans.  I had to teach them to sleep. 

2. Eat

Ok, yeah, babies know how to suck.  Sure.  But they do now know how to hold a spoon and put it in their mouths.  This was extremely difficult for my sweet Nolen.  We are still teaching him to eat.  He is picky.  He will not eat meat.  He will not eat anything that looks funny.  I have read many books on teaching my child to eat.  I also try to teach them a healthy balance with food.  I want them to have a good relationship with food.  I want them to enjoy food.  This, I can see, is a life long lesson parents must teach.

3. Use the potty

Potty training is no easy feat.  I had no idea it was so complicated.  I just thought you show them the bathroom, then they use it. HA! I am laughing at my old self.  It takes months and months and months of constant patience.  I had to remind myself to remind my boys to use the potty.  I have a whole system for teaching children to use the bathroom.  This was especially hard for my sweet Nolen who struggled to understand what we were trying to teach him.  Edward had the hardest time learning to poop on the potty.  Also, don't forget to teach them to wipe properly! HA! I wish all future parents a good luck with this one.

4. Reading

Ah, yes.  This should be easy, right?  I started reading to Edward when he was an infant.  When he wouldn't sleep, I read a book about creating a night time routine.  It said to read to your infant as part of the routine.  I have been reading out loud to my children every single night for their entire lives.  Supposedly, this was also going to help them learn to read.  NOPE!  We have spent countless nights after school teaching these boys how to read.  It is frustrating to go over the same words again and again and again.  Then I am reminded that they are just as frustrated as I am.  Ah, I digress.  After many years of going over site words and reading simple phrases, I think both my boys are really reading now. 

5. Math

This goes hand in hand with reading.  Math is simple in the beginning.  I have three apples and Edward has three apples. If we put them together how many do we have?  If I take away one apple, how many do we have?  Simple.  Now lets take a step into memorizing multiplication facts.  Yes, another thing we must do nightly as parents.  (I can not imagine having real home work as reading and math has been all I can handle!) I have drilled 7 times 8 more times than I can count.  We say math facts in the car.  We say math facts at the breakfast table.  We say math facts at bed time.  We are always talking math.

6. Bathing
For boys, this is essential.  If it were up to them, they would just get in the water and get out.  They would not use soap.  They would not wash their hair.  I am still teaching them to wash their hair properly.  Most of the time, I still help them.  This is on going.  Tedious. I will also include self care in this like clipping finger nails, brushing teeth, and washing their face!  Also, teaching your children to button their own pants and shirts is just as nerve racking as teaching them to tie their shoes!

7. To tie your shoes

Ok, this has been so much more difficult than I thought it would be.  I bought tie shoes for both my boys back in December.  Truthfully, I have been avoiding this one because I knew it would slow us down getting out the door.  It is already hard enough to get out the door and adding tying shoes to our list was not something I was looking forward to doing; however, Edward was almost 9 when I just HAD to teach him.  This January, we set out to learn to tie shoes.  After four months of tying our shoes EVERY SINGLE MORNING, both my boys finally know how to tie shoes!

I know I have only named a few of the hard things and I know more had things are coming my way; however, I am so grateful for the patience each one of these things has taught me. I can be very impatient with my children.  I am changing that slowly.  Stephen suggested I be less patient with people who are not my family.  I think I agree.  I always present my very best self to others and then my sweet children see my ugly non patient self.  So, I am switching it up.  (Ok, really, I am just going to try to be much more mindful of being kind to my family.)

Just to show you how tedious learning to tie a shoe really is, here is a video. 

Enjoy!