Parenting.

[angledge]

What does it take to be a good parent?

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Love, respect, trust, kindness, strong will, and a helluva lot of patience.

[karstyl.livejournal.com]

A love of children, or at least your children.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Willingness to sacrifice your own needs/wants in favor of someone else's.
Acceptance of the fact that you can't control everything.
Patience. TONS AND TONS of patience.
Sense of humor.

[miss-katelynne.livejournal.com]

This is what I would have said. :)

The sense of humor is especially important on some days.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Willingness to sacrifice your own needs/wants in favor of someone else's.

Total sticking point.

[sskipstress.livejournal.com]

Same here. But from what I've seen of parents, the best parents are the ones who not only manage to make this sacrifice, but they do it with grace.

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

This is what parenthood teaches you, amongst other things -- how to identify and then exceed your limitations.

[ajmcoqui.livejournal.com]

Five things: love, understanding, patience, humor, and discipline. I think that would pretty much cover everything...

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Oregano.

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

Is that what I'm doing wrong. I've been using sage.

[chaosvizier.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. A little Oregano goes a long way.

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

But I've heard that parents always complain about never having enough thyme...?

[wendynat.livejournal.com]

Sense of humor. Flexibility. Genuine desire to be a good parent.

Unfortunately, there isn't a set formula with "mix A and B and C and you'll get D every time!" for kids, despite what some of the parenting communities might insist :). For every person that posts on an internet parenting comm thinking they're an expert and their kid is perfect, I can point out a serial killer in the making!

[miss-katelynne.livejournal.com]

Isn't it funny. It seems like the people that actually worry about screwing their kid up are the ones who are being good parents.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

By this reasoning I would be a fantastic parent, because I'm terrified of the idea of raising a child.

Yeah...

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

There's a reason I don't have any either. I tried my hand at being a nanny last year. It's more than a job. It's an adventure.

[ataralas.livejournal.com]

Insanity.

And a good sense of one's own self–so that you don't try and live through your kids. After that, what everyone else said.

[kwokj.livejournal.com]

some thoughts

you should have a clear sense of your values to instill them in your children. none of that wishy washy, "I'll let them decide when they're old enough," because everything you do has an impact, and doing nothing is a decision in itself. Things that people like ajmcoqui and scifantasy have been saying fall under this, though I'd also underscore patience and discipline. have the patience and flexibility to roll with it because kids and people are unpredictable and for a lot of people, there's more variety to the human condition than they realize, but also have the wisdom to know when discipline and strong will should apply.

[fizrep.livejournal.com]

Also values like: Make sure that when they dole out the goodies, the dark chocolate ones are saved for daddy.

[agntprovocateur.livejournal.com]

time (they suck it right out of you)
clean ears ( you have to listen a lot)
strong body (you are the jungle gym)
imagination ( make up any game on the spot)
voice with firm resolve ( sit! vs sit, dog, sit, sit SIT!)
charge 50cents for every "whatever" you hear
dance and sing

(p.s. I should start a school for parenting. but i can't say if any of this will work with a teenager)

[angledge.livejournal.com]

How about a class on deciding whether or not you should even consider being a parent?

[pheltzer.livejournal.com]

Children

[trishalynn.livejournal.com]

My mom said recently that a parent is only as happy as his or her saddest child. So to me, making sure your kids are happy and safe would be the top-most criterion.

On that note...

[jacesan.livejournal.com]

You should ask your parents, ang. They did a great job! :)

[songquake.livejournal.com]

patience, sense of humor, and a determination to be consistent with your children. really. consistency is the thing that gets stressed the most in parenting classes.

oh, and love is also important.

[hermiston.livejournal.com]

theory of mind. and defined rules.

What does it take to be a good parent?

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think there is a one size fits all answer to this question. Different kids need different things from parents. I would say one safe assumption is that as tough as it may sometimes be, you have to be the parent and not their friend. They'll hate you at the time, but most likely appreciate it later in life. I did.

Signed,
Lurking in the weeds (or kudzu as it were)

[fanboyextream.livejournal.com]

a lot