The Pouty Face

80% of our lives are spent having adorably curious, well mannered children and the other 20% is filled with pouty lips, then tears and screaming (to some degree)... Most of the time, we can see it coming.  The boys are having a great ol' time playing and we politely tell them that they need to stop and join us for dinner at the table -10 feet away- and it's as though something all together insurmountable has been asked.  Enter the bargaining, stomping and crying and we've got our typical dinner scene.

We try pretty hard to make compromises.  The beginning of dinner is mandatory; all 4 of us spend a moment to ask one another about our days; but after that it's entirely up to them if they'd like to spend the rest of the meal with us.  Usually, they don't and that's fine, because as I've learned, it's about picking our battles.  So, if the beginning of dinner is the most important and contributes to our family relationship the most, then we're not taking "NO!" for an answer, but as the minutes drag on and the sun is setting, we've learned not to push it.

It's hard though, right?  I was reading a parenting article the other day about mistakes parents make, which I know I do on the daily, and it got me to thinking about how I'd like to find a better balance between expectations and reality, happy-go-lucky and full on meltdown.  I'm thinking it's something that never truly is accomplished, because just as we're finding the "right balance," another new stage is coming along and we're at the beginning of a new balance, a new perspective and new set of battles to be chosen.

As with all families and relationships, we're a work in progress, learning as we go, making mistakes -whether intentional or not- and finding out what works sometimes moment to moment.  And that's alright, because seriously, a pouty face or two is kind of adorable.