Parenting with a spouse should make raising children easier–but that’s if you and your spouse are on the same page and if you’re not, the two of you can meet in some kind of middle ground. Disagreeing on certain things as parents can make parenting frustrating and can create a level of distrust. I feel like I should’ve been given a handbook on “things to find out about your future spouse before marrying them or having kids with them.” I had thought the most important thing (if we were going to have children) was beliefs. I was okay with being with someone who didn’t have the same biblical beliefs as me, but I did not want to have kids unless he shared my beliefs. I know how that sounds but I’m very devoted to the beliefs I grew up in and they’re very important to me. I didn’t want to raise children with the parents having opposing views, that’s just a recipe for disaster. Oh, the things I have learned in the four short years my husband and I have been together.
We have different views on food, though it’s not as big of an issue. We haven’t allowed sugar yet and we both agreed on it though for some reason my husband has mentioned him having sweets at various times. I do not want him having any fish yet because of the potential of them containing heavy metals, I just want him to be older, his blood brain barrier more developed. Somehow the possibility of our child ingesting something toxic is not much of a concern to him compared to letting him eat bready foods. While I don’t think gluten is great because of all modifications they’ve made to it over the years, if it’s organic its hopefully (I know organic doesn’t guarantee there aren’t any pesticides) better than eating regular bready foods and also it can only be avoided for so long. My husband acts as if our son’s body will shut down if he eats bread–that’s only a slight exaggeration.
Our most recent parenting disagreement is on punishment. I do think children need to be punished so that they learn boundaries and will most likely not turn out to be brats. And I used to agree with spanking. Now, I can’t imagine spanking my children. When my son looks at me with his big, innocent, adorable, trusting eyes, I can’t imagine breaking that trust by spanking him. I’ll definitely be going the route of ‘no dessert’ and that kind of stuff as he gets older when he doesn’t listen.
On the writing front, I have not yet finished my book but I’m getting close! I also entered it into a contest, NovelBeginnings, on the ProWritingAid site. First place gets $50,000, something with an agent and two other things I forget. I tried to look (admittedly not that hard) but I couldn’t find the list of what the winner got. I really pray I win but if not (I’ve never won before, haha) maybe I’ll get one of the other places. Your book doesn’t even have to be finished to enter it into the contest and it’s still open if anyone else want to enter.
Mikaela Nicole 