Diary of a Wimpy Parent

Every parent of an early reader knows that the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series is amazing. But what most parents don’t know is the inspiring back story. I learned that and more in this gem. 

The kids don’t love the who is/who was? books as much as I do. However, they do like snuggling and listening to me read. We got through this book in one sitting.

Jeff Kinney had to wrestle for years before he saw any success. As readers, we love those kind of stories. But as humans, we want to skip all the struggle part. Currently, I don’t want to struggle through raising my own “wimpy” kids. We've got three very different flavors requiring three different parenting styles. I am currently aging in hyperspeed over this one.

I've had serious déjà vu researching enneagram four kids. My musician college boyfriend also liked to "sit in his sad feelings." Before I'd come over to his apartment to hang out, he'd listen to mopey music. I'd be like, "Why? The world seems hard enough without sitting in the sad stuff." 

Side note: My readers are like, "Hold up, aren't you the queen of reading all the sad books?" Yes, because end-of-life topics are direct and truthful. That writing style speaks to my eight personality. I digress..

While said boyfriend was a lovely person, the eight/four combo was not working on a few levels. We had a tortuous break-up. But guess what? I can't break up with my kid.

Also not unlike romantic partners, I can't change my four kid. I've spent the last six months trying and failing quite spectacularly. Like many life fails, I should have known better. But I needed my bestie to point it out on a recent exasperated phone call. 

Generally speaking, I feel like I'm not the right person for this parenting job. I often tell Paul that I’m failing at a job I can’t quit. Pre-kids, I generally tried to avoid irrational people. Now I voluntarily live with three irrational people. I have a shockingly low frustration tolerance. As a child, I wasn't allowed to be angry. As an adult, haven't figured out how to tame the beast. 

On my best days, I'm calm and a good listener. On my worst days, I launch into irate uninspiring pep-talks about "how life is never going to get any easier so you should find a way to make it work."  On one hand, it feels disrespectful to my kid to try and turn this child of God into something more "agreeable." On the other, what kind of preparation is this for life if I am overly accommodating 

Thankfully Germany prevails again, providing free family counseling around the corner of our house to help us get a vision. We had our first meeting about a different kid last week. We will have a meeting on this kid in a couple weeks. In the mean time, we are in the struggle phase of this story.