When We Win Parents of the Year…. (Photo courtesy of Julie Rybarczyk via Flickr Creative Commons)
Dear Parents of the Year Committee,
I am so excited to submit our application for Parents of the Year, on behalf of my husband and me. (Trust me, my husband is totally on board with this application). We’ve only been doing this parenting thing for a little more than 5 years and I think we’re really getting a hang of it! I think this past week has been exemplary of our parenting skills so please allow me to share some moments with you.
The week started off Monday with a parenting bang when my husband texted me during my staff meeting at work with an urgent request to call him. Guess what? Neither one of us had realized that our Kindergartener didn’t have school that day OR the next day! DUH! Where had we been? Standing in front of the daycare waiting for the bus, lookin’ like a fool, that’s where! THANKFULLY my husband could stay home with her that day, and also our daycare offers all-day care on closed school days! It takes a village, we say!
On Tuesday, we actually remembered our son’s preschool show-and-tell this week, and on the right day! We didn’t get the letter right; It was “I” if you were wondering, and we thought it was “H” so we brought a hammer, but the boy wanted his Captain America shield. He threw such a fit about it, insisting it started with “H” that the deafening din of his cries caused me to walk right out of the house with the keys locked inside. DOH! Thank GOODNESS our awesome neighbor had a set of our keys AND answered her phone at seven in the morning! (I hope she applies for Parent of the Year too…. she totally deserves it, for both her parenting skills and lock picking skills, which thankfully we didn’t need to employ.)
I would also like to submit for your consideration that we try to be mindful and adhere to certain parenting philosophies. For example, we believe there is value in teaching children the correct names for body parts, including the “private parts” if you know what I mean. I am very proud of the fact that neither of our children, to our knowledge, have used these words inappropriately at school or in public yet! And they’ve almost stopped calling each other the names of those body parts when they are goofing around!
I am also very proud of the fact that I have found more time for “me”, since I think it’s important to put on your own oxygen mask first, so to speak. Just the other weekend at Target, after my son peed in the aisle and the managers had to call somebody to pour the cat litter stuff on it to clean it up, I volunteered to walk the cart back to the store once the rest of the fam was in the car and strapped in. Much like time in the shower or using the bathroom, that’s valuable me-time! I don’t take that for granted, no sir.
Finally, I would like to put forth my ability to prioritize my children’s needs above my own, when the situation calls for it which is almost always. Just this morning, we made sure they were dressed, that their food was packed for the day, that they had brushed their teeth and gotten their shoes on and had breakfast available if they chose to eat it (which they sometimes actually do!). I realized when I got home tonight that my own toothbrush was still sitting on the counter with the toothpaste still on it! Also tonight I didn’t eat dinner. Yes this was in part because I forgot and also was too tired, but also because I was so focused on getting my kids some nutritious food. I think these actions demonstrate that sometimes I am so selfless that I don’t even realize how selfless I am. It just comes naturally.
I hope that reading this application, you will take away from it that we have a great support system in place, are able to adapt to new routines and adeptly navigate the unexpected hairpin turns that parenting throws at us nearly every day. Thank you for your consideration and in all sincerity, it is just an honor to apply.
Your truly,
Mary Beth
About Mary Beth Cox